Most school environment In Nigeria are bare and void of trees leading to hot, noisy, and polluted environment making school children to be restless, prone to ill health, and generally low performance in their studies. Children with attention deficit disorder have been more affected as trees that will boost their immunities are not available. NCF intend to plant 240,000 trees in 240 public schools, create 240 conservation club, train 800 teachers and train 4000 children on greenspace creation.
Trees serve as screens to secure privacy, to reduce noise and they provide shade, unfortunately, little or no value or priority has been placed on tree planting in Nigeria as a whole. According to Ojeh et. al (2019), trees serve as wind breaks, however, only few stands or non are currently standing in Nigerian schools as the environment is characterized by a lot of open space with polluted air making windstorms one of the disasters that destroy classrooms.
The project will select 240 schools, create 240 conservation clubs and plant 1000 fruit trees in each of them. 800 teachers will be trained and 4000 students will also be enlightened on the role of trees in children education within a school. The trained teachers will be expected to become trainers of other teachers in other schools and create more clubs with green space in other schools. NCF believe that this will solve the problem of lack of good air quality within the shortest time.
Tree planting in schools will create a pure air for generations of students. Abilities such as reading, learning and creative thinking will gradually return to the education system. Shaded areas will be available. Outdoor learning would be fun for the growing students. Health related issues will be minimized. Trees only need care in their first few years. Depending on the type of trees, availability of trees in school might be source of food for hungry children who cannot confide in teachers.
This project has provided additional documentation in a DOCX file (projdoc.docx).
