Otago Enviroschools regional co-ordinator and Dunedin City Council Water and Waste Services education promotion officer Jenny Neilson said cuts were made in the recent Budget to all major Education for Sustainability (EfS) initiatives funded by the Ministry of Education, including the Enviroschools Foundation, Education for Sustainability Advisers (professional development support for teachers in mainstream schools), Matauranga Taiao (professional development support for teachers in Kura Maori) and the Environmental Education Guidelines Review Project.
Together, the four programmes constituted less than 1% of the education budget, she said.
In the letter to the Enviroschools Foundation, the ministry said "the quality of the programmes or services are not the issue - they are just not the most important ways of achieving the Government's goals".
The ministry initiated a contract with the Enviroschools Foundation in January 2007 for the support and further development of the Enviroschools programme.
This contract was worth $4.6 million over four years.
Since then, it indicated its intention to renegotiate the 2009-10 portion of the contract, which is valued at $1.6 million.
Ms Neilson said these developments were surprising and would have negative implications for the Enviroschools programme in schools.
The Enviroschools Foundation assisted schools by training facilitators, producing action-learning teaching materials, building a national network of mentors and connecting schools with experts in ecology, architecture, applied sciences and business.
Without the foundation, schools may lose these benefits.
Cutting support would also tarnish New Zealand's environmental credibility and its clean-green identity, she said.
Since its establishment in 1990, Enviroschools had become an example of international best-practice and educators around the world had singled out the programme as a leader in education for sustainability.
A quarter of New Zealand schools were part of the programme and in many regions there was a waiting list of schools eager to join, she said.
This reflected the recognition by schools that Enviroschools supported educational achievement for a wide range of pupils.
The programme was also supported and valued by 60 partner organisations including regional, city and district councils and community groups around New Zealand.
The Enviroschools Foundation would meet the Ministry of Education on June 22 to renegotiate the July-December 2009 funding, she said.
