The South Africans will celebrate the World Earth Day on Monday to raise the awareness of the environmental protection, an expert said in an interview with Xinhua on Friday.

On this year's World Earth Day a number of schools in South Africa will teach learners to take care of the environment, said Catherine Constantinides, National Director for Miss Earth South Africa, an environmental advocacy organization.

The World Earth Day, started on April 22, 1970, is observed in more than 192 countries on April 22 each year to demonstrate support for global environmental protection.

"It is crucial to involve school children in different environmental protection activities to empower them with the knowledge of preserving the natural environment to prevent things like global warming and climate change that pose a threat to planet earth," the environmental expert said.

Constantinides added,"By teaching children the importance of caring for the environment from a young age, it is possible to make environmental advocacy their second nature. This means that these young children without even realizing it are able to be champions for the earth."

Mondeor Primary School, a public school in Johannesburg in South Africa, is one of the schools that Miss Earth South Africa will work with on April 22 in marking the World Earth Day.

Constantinides said, "The Generation Earth Council, which is the school's environmental club, will do a clean-up, such as picking up litter and cleaning the public areas, classrooms, storerooms and other areas in their surroundings."

"The Generation Earth Council will perform a poem about litter, that is designed to teach the younger children about the dangers of littering and living in an unclean environment and the importance of taking pride in your surroundings," the expert told Xinhua.

Mondeor Primary School, which was established in 1953, currently has 1200 students.

Annastella Papageorgiou, a grade-six female teacher at the school, told Xinhua that it will be important for the pupils to be involved in the environmental protection, saying, "The Chinese proverb that says 'tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand' says it all."

"Children will be involved in the clean-up so that they can understand and appreciate the need to keep their environment clean, " said the female teacher.

"They will develop an understanding that this is their school and so this is their responsibility as a group to clean and make their earth better. We need to clean our home or school environment before we can make an impact on the world," said Papageorgiou.

The teacher told Xinhua the children at her school have been always involved in environment caring activities in commemoration of the World Earth Day during the past years.

"Our pupils have attended annual generation earth summits and repeatedly cleaned the school and surrounding areas. They have also been involved in litter clean-up at the local river and removal of invasive plants along the river bed," said she.

Invasive plants are non-indigenous plants that disrupt the local environment.

Constantinides told Xinhua that the expression "charity starts at home" is true about environmental advocacy, believing by encouraging the young learners to keep their schools and playgrounds clean a sense of pride is instilled in them to save the environment for our future prosperity. Endi

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