One afternoon in the garden of my Sanya apartment complex, I saw five children breaking bamboo stalks for a mock battle.

I told them it was harmful to the environment, but they ignored me.

When I insisted, one boy retorted that it was none of my business, and a nearby man glared at me, prompting me to walk away.

Returning later, I found they had broken two large bamboo stalks.

When I asked if they were taught to protect plants in school, one boy flatly said, "No".

Although it's an isolated case and cannot fully represent the entire scenario, raising public awareness about environmental protection is very important.

It wasn't until 2022, when the central education authorities issued a directive, that the concept of green and low-carbon living began to gradually be integrated into China's educational materials at various levels.

While some cities, such as Shanghai, have reportedly made progress — with nearly 80 percent of schools promoting green campuses and environmentally-friendly education — environmental protection education has yet to be deeply embedded in the textbooks and curricula of early schooling.

Undoubtedly, China has made significant strides in environmental protection.

In China, around 90 percent of terrestrial ecosystem types and 74 percent of nationally protected wild flora and fauna species have been effectively preserved.

Additionally, China has become the fastest country in the world in terms of improving air quality, with blue skies and white clouds becoming the norm.

The education authorities should prioritize environmental protection in their curricula. In some schools, there are no specialized teachers for environmental studies, and the responsibility is often handed over to moral education teachers.

As a result, some school children are ignorant of the relationship between environment protection and their daily life.

One survey revealed that primary and middle school students got low scores in ecological behavior and environmental awareness.

It is time environment protection was given the seriousness it deserves in our education, especially at the early educational stage.

Environment protection needs to be included in textbooks and woven into other subjects such as science, history, geography and moral education.

It should not be an isolated topic, but a connecting thread that helps students see the world as an interdependent whole.

More investment is needed for building environmental protection practice bases where students learn relevant skills and absorb knowledge while playing and working.

There should also be closer cooperation between schools and parents to make children more environment-friendly.

Specialized teachers in environmental studies can bring depth and consistency to the subject, while teachers of other subjects should be better equipped with knowledge of environmental protection to be able to incorporate environmental perspectives into their lessons.

Environmental protection education should start as early as the kindergarten.

Habits picked up at that formative age stay with an individual forever.

This strategy will have dual benefits. An early introduction to the concept of environmental protection will make the child a life guardian of the environment.

I hope that with better education, our children will become stronger environment guardians who will see to it that our skies will become bluer, our water cleaner and our people more friendly to plants and animals.

The author is former deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily.

kangbing@chinadaily.com.cn