Environmental Education in Indian Schools: Current Trends and Challenges

In the last three decades, there has been a judicial mandate and, more recently, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) to make EE a part of the school policy. The paper reviews a critical overview of the status, trends and ongoing challenges of environmental education in Indian schools, based on the secondary data published from the government agencies like The Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+), Ministry of Education, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and independent agencies like the Centre for Science and Environment in the period 2018-2025. The study adopts a descriptive, secondary data-based research design approach, compiling and analysing five tables of data on the growth of eco-clubs, school-level green infrastructure, green school certifications, state-wise disparities and the policy timeline. The findings show that there is a significant level of commitment to policies and coverage of programs is also increasing, however, only a minority of schools across the country have fully functioning rainwater harvesting systems, kitchen gardens and resourced eco-clubs and there is significant variation in the level of coverage across the different states. Re persisting problems are inadequate teacher training, unequal infrastructure, assessment-driven learning instead of experiential learning and unsatisfactory monitoring mechanisms. The paper suggests that the assimilation of the policy framework of progressive environmental education in India into a consistent implementation at the classroom and campus level demands continuous investment in funding, capacity development and implementation of a strong data-informed monitoring system.