The very welcome financial support from the NLDTF now means that  another 9480 learners in Grades 7 would might ordinarily never get top understand our miraculous marine environment a peek at undersea wonders that might never have imagined.

The aim of the project is to give future generation an awareness and understand of South African biodiversity (with particular emphasis on but not limited to the ocean) with a view to their protecting it going forward.

The two-fold programme and entails both a classroom-based lesson at school and a visit to uShaka Sea World. This is followed by a school based environmental project.

One of the first areas to benefit from the NLDTF funding was Sodwana Bay in northern KwaZulu-Natal. Lessons were provided at eight schools and one teachers’ workshop was conducted. The interactive curriculum based lessons focused on understanding the concept of biodiversity and ecology and how the two are interdependently linked. Once this was well understood, the consequence of negative human impact on the environment was easy to comprehend.

As part of the dream of connecting the learners with the possibility of a career linked to the ocean, two uShaka Sea World divers who grew up and have families living in Sodwana Bay area joined the educators. Although many of these learners live close to the ocean, they have never felt connected with the marine world on their doorsteps. As a result, they had a lot of fun getting a firsthand look into the interesting life of a diver.

At the Teachers’ Workshop which focused on classification and sustainability, the different life stages of animals were explored and the need to protect the delicate web of life was encouraged. Teachers were challenged to conduct environmental audits at their schools and to choose one project – such as electricity or water reduction, putting in place recycling stations or the developing vegetable gardens – which they could tackle with learner participation.  

The second part of the progamme - which is definitely the highlight for the learners and the most stressful for the organisers -  is the visit to uShaka Sea World. The uShaka Sea World Education staff assists the teachers with the regulatory paperwork and arrange for busses to transport the learners to uShaka Marine World.

Marine educator, Sazi Sibisihas, has visited over 15 000 learners over the past three years and believes that, without bringing the learners to uShaka Marine World, the lessons he conducts at schools could be forgotten. “When I see learners from rural and peri-urban schools walking through the Aquarium with wonder and amazement in their eyes, I know that, when they get back school, the questions they will ask will be very different from those asked in lessons at school.”

“The realisation that the ocean is part of their world and not some foreign concept belonging to strange people is deepened as they pass one aquarium window after another. Their feeling of connectedness is almost tangible,” he explains.

For more information on uShaka Sea World, visit www.seaworld.org.za.