ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOR INNER-URBANS
Member for Western Victoria Region, Bev McArthur used a constituency question in Parliament this week to ask the Minister for Education to consider integrating the BugBlitz program into the state curriculum.
The BugBlitz program is hosted by the Connewarre Wetland Centre and funded by the Williamson Foundation, and provides exceptional educational opportunities for students by helping them engage with the natural environment and learn about ecosystems and biodiversity outside the classroom.
Bev McArthur said “Despite recent calls by some to ban duck hunting in Victoria, Victorian branches of Field & Game Australia continue to serve the wider community through conservation and education.”
“Members of the Connewarre Field and Game Branch do an outstanding supporting the breeding ground for 230 bird species, of which only 7 or 3% are listed for hunting.”
“A member of Geelong Field & Game told me when a bus of students from a Geelong school arrived at the Connewarre Wetlands Centre, a student asked whether they were still in Australia, so unfamiliar were they with a non-urban rural environment.”
Bev McArthur asked the Education Minister, “What is the Andrews Government doing to ensure that students from suburbia and especially inner Melbourne are provided with BugBlitz educational opportunities, that expose them to nature, rural environments and country life?”
31 October 2019