TEHRAN- High school curriculum in Iran will soon feature in environment-related subjects, said Mohammad Darvish, an official with the Department of Environment.

The Ministry of Education is putting together the book titled “Human being and the Environment” to be studied by high school eleventh-graders, IRNA quoted Darvish as saying on Thursday.

In addition to raising students’ awareness of environmental concerns, the course will aim to spice up the materials covered with interesting content on environment, Darvish said.

Darvish also highlighted that “We are planning to present the environment as a social value to our children and young population. For this, we are trying not to include any negative depiction of the environment and the damage to it in the materials developed for pre-elementary and elementary schools.”

The focus will be on setting the scene for a direct link between students and the environment, he maintained.

Darvish reasoned that Iranians’ attempts to protect the environment have not come to fruition as these have been more scattered than centralized.

“We have lost 18 million oak trees in the Zagros Ranges [northwest-southeast] and 10 million valuable tree species in Hyrcanian forests [north] over the past 20 years,” he added.

The official regretted that the current environmental condition of the country is the most lamentable story to hear.

PT/AK/MG