TheCentre for Engineering Education (CEE), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and RCE Iskandar in collaboration with Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA), Johor State Education Department (JPNJ) and University Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) organized the RCE Iskandar Sustainable & Low Carbon Schools Exhibition 2017 on 19 June 2017 at UniKL Bandar Seri Alam, Johor. This is in conjunction with “Iskandar Learning Festival 2017” organized by IRDA.
The exhibition was to provide an opportunity for schools to showcase their efforts in giving awareness to school students, teachers, parents and community on green, low carbon and sustainable development. The exhibition and competition among the schools was also a platform for the schools to receive recognition for their efforts. The schools were judged by international and local experts in environment education from Kyoto City, JICA, Kyoto Environmental Activities Association, KIKO Network Japan, IRDA, JPNJ and higher education institutes. The winner for the Best of the Best (primary school) for the 2017 exhibition went to the same winner of 2016 which is SJKC Pulai while the winner for the same award for secondary school went to SMK Sultanah Engku Tun Aminah, Johor Bahru. 9 schools were awarded gold medals, 8 schools silver medals and 1 school bronze medal.
Other special awards are Best Booth (primary school) won by SJKC Woon Hwa, Best Poster (primary school) won by SKJT Taman Tun Aminah, Best Booth (secondary school) won by SMK Ulu Tiram and Best Poster (secondary school) won by SMK Telok Kerang. All the prizes were presented by the sponsors of the program. The sponsors were Seri Alam Properties, UMLand, SWM Environment, Masless Express and Dasani Mineral Water.
Besides the school exhibition and competition, many organizations were invited to join the exhibition such as Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Johor, Kelab Alami, Syarikat Air Johor, SWM Environment, J-Bio Tech, Jabatan Alam Sekitar (JAS) Johor, EM Resources Centre, UTM Low Carbon Asia Research Centre, IPG Temenggong Ibrahim, UiTM Pasir Gudang and UniKL Bandar Seri Alam.
At the same time, parallel talks and workshops by experts in Education for Sustainable Development were given throughout the whole day. Topics such as sustainability, composting, water, tree planting, green chemistry, solid waste management, cycling, community science and so on are given by experts from UTM, IPG Temenggong Ibrahim, MNS, SWM Environment, JAS, J-Bio Tech, EM Resources Centre and Japanese organizations.
The exhibition attracted more than 1000 participants from schools, governmental and non-governmental agencies and public. This is the third year UTM organized such an exhibition under RCE Iskandar. It is hoped to encourage more schools to involve in efforts to make schools green and spread ESD awareness among the school community and the surrounding.
