The University of Malta Junior College has just concluded a two-year project entitled ‘Saving Energy… Saving Our Future’ in which 21 Maltese students and teachers made use of the Comenius EU funds made available by the European Commission through the local agency EUPA. Last March, Malta also invited 13 students and 12 teachers through the project from partner countries Germany, Hungary, Poland and Turkey.

The project aimed to change students’ attitudes towards the sustainable use of energy, responsible consumption and to adopt a lifestyle which minimises the need for energy. This was done by involving the participants in activities such as the monitoring of energy consumption at home, assessing the contribution towards the carbon footprint and thinking of different measures to save energy. In addition, patterns of consumption were also analysed with respect to climatic conditions and social behaviour. Through the project, these activities took place in all participating schools simultaneously.

Apart from this, five international meetings took place throughout the project’s duration, and students and teachers had the opportunity to visit locations related to the topic they were researching, such as energy plants, wind farms, large scale photovoltaic installations, as well one of the major factories manufacturing energy saving lamps.

Boryana Chaneva, Coordinator of the Eurocentre at the Junior College, stated that “the project was not only successful in raising awareness about the use of energy amongst participants, but also with their families, as well as other College students and staff. In fact, the administration of the college strongly believes in the need of such projects and the importance of student participation in extracurricular activities, which are of benefit to students’ formation. The learning outcomes of this EU-funded project are considered as being of great educational value, and have furthermore encouraged the participants to gain additional competences such as interpersonal communication, intercultural awareness, communication in different languages and digital competences”.