Six years after it pioneered the promotion of sustainable development in China, Beijing has taken the lead in the country once again by bringing its thousands of teenagers together in an educational program linked to the new century's first International Environment Day, which was honored yesterday.

The new campaign indicates that the Chinese capital is shifting its work focus in sustainable development from the training of local officials and several pilot projects to society as a whole.

Yesterday morning, the accustomed tranquility of Yongle Primary School, an ordinary community school in western Beijing's Shijingshan District, was interrupted by intermittent applause. Winners of a composition and painting competition dedicated to the theme of "protecting the earth" were given awards.

"We were saddened by the sighs of these naive children over the damage we have done to their friends - the birds, trees, and flowers, shocked to read some of the pessimism about the world's future, but encouraged by the fact that the young are not ignorant or indifferent to what is going on around them," said Jiang Chunqin.

Jiang, the executive vice-director of the Beijing Agenda 21 Office, which is responsible for the city's sustainable development, said the competition, as well as dozens more in various forms in other schools, helped test local children's awareness of sustainable development.

According to Jiang, although students of some schools have high awareness of environmental issues, many others do not, while a few have never even heard the words sustainable development in their classrooms.

Therefore, the office started a city-wide training course yesterday for local teachers on sustainable development, directed by a team of teachers from the Shijingshan District.

"The role of teachers is very important, because a little bit more extra effort from them will bring more youngsters to care about the environment around them, and to really do something," said Lin Qiuyue, a senior teacher with Yongle Primary School. Lin started teaching about the environment in the early 1980s.

(China Daily 06/06/2001)