Schools across will now be expected to participate in composing items that seek to champion environmental protection and climate action.
Principal Secretary for Basic Education Julius Bitok said he will issue a directive to the 45,000 schools to participate in the competition where learners will be awarded based on their compositions.
Bitok was speaking during the ceremony in Nakuru State House where winners of the First Lady's Mazingira Awards (Flama) were celebrated.
"The ministry will give a directive to all the 45,000 schools across the country for learners to participate in these competitions that seems to engage learners in conserving environment through creativity and innovation," Bitok said.
First Lady Rachel Ruto noted that this year's competition drew over 2,000 schools.
"The aim of this competition is to nurture environmentally responsible citizens by giving them space to use their creative skills to express their perceptions and actions towards addressing climate change," Rachel said.
She noted that since the initiative's inception in 2023, the program has empowered several schools to become centers of environmental action.
This year's competition saw 2,400 schools participating in the event where learners compose essays , poems and artwork that represents environmental sustainability.
Through art, essays, poetry, and innovation, the learners expressed creative solutions to the country’s growing pollution and climate challenges from waste management to forest restoration and clean energy innovations.
This year's winning items singled out pollution and deforestation as major environmental challenges in the country.
Susan Lenoir, a who was part of the 2024 winners from St Mary's Girls Primary School in Narok County said that the platform gives the student space to give solutions to the current problems the country is facing.
"This competition gives us a chance to highlight the challenges we gave as a country and offer solutions which we think can solve those problems," she said.
The items presented for the annual competition are assessed by education and conservation experts from across the country with an inclusion of specialists in special needs education.
