My dissertation is about environmental education at basic schools. I am interested in environmental education issues at differently focused basic schools in the Czech Republic.

Ecology and ecological behaviour and thinking belong among the most important topics which are necessary to consider if we want to guarantee the future existence of mankind on our planet. Everybody can learn about environment and ecology at school, so that is why environmental education at school is a necessity for every of us and it has to lead to sustainable development.

There exists a project called Tulip in the Czech Republic. It is an important Dutch and Czech project and these countries co-operate together. This project is aimed at environmental education at schools. The aim is the environmentally orientated education and ecological behaviour at basic school leading to preparation of sustainable development. The schools which take part in this project, formed a net of ecological schools. Nowadays, there are about 100 schools.

In school year 1999-2000, the first stage began its process. This stage was very important and difficult for schools which participated in it.

One of the aims of my dissertation is, that I am going to do a research at a number of differently focused basic schools in the Czech Republic. The research is going to ascertain pupils’ knowledge and attitudes towards ecology and environment.

The first group of my research will be pupils from the net of ecological schools associated within the framework of the project Tulip and the second group will be pupils from schools which are not in this net.

As a part of my dissertation, I was interested in the environmental education and training in the European countries and this is what my presentation is about. I was interested in some of the European Union countries (France, Germany, The Netherlands) and other European countries (The Czech Republic, The Slovak Republic). I wanted to know if the states I chose have any national programme regarding environmental education at schools, environmental policy and other important aspects with regard to ecology.

1. Is there a national programme or strategy regarding environmental education in this country?
2. Has the government of this country adopted an official environmental policy? If so, is environmental education a part of it?
3. Which organisation in this country is responsible for introducing environmental education elements into teachers‘ qualification programmes? Does this country have environmental education curricula and environmental education preparation of teachers?
4. How many environmental education centres are in your country? Are they concentrated in particular area or are they dispersed? Do they employ professional managers or are they run by volunteers?