As part of its curriculum, the school has developed an Environment Education Module, which deals with air and water issues. Students in the lower secondary levels spend two hours a week on this non-examination subject, exploring innovative ways to solve pollution problems that Singapore faces.

Secondary One students learn about water management while Secondary Two students learn about improving air quality. At the end of 15 weeks, the students form groups and propose projects on how to combat the environmental problems they have learned.

On Monday, the school's programme received a boost with a $80 000 environment education fund presented by Hitachi Ltd, in line with the company's Eco Conference, held here for the first time.

Presented by Mr Takashi Hatchoji, Chief Environmental Strategy Officer of Hitachi, the fund will support three key areas, one of which is awarding students who have excelled in environment-related projects and activities.

The fund, which will be used over three years, will also go towards training teachers to keep them up-to-date on environmental issues, and also creating learning packages and teaching resources in other areas such as waste management and water technology.

The school has been a Centre of Excellence For Environmental Education in the North Five Cluster since 2007, a recognition of its heavy involvement in environmental education.

The launch of the fund was witnessed by Dr Yacoob Ibrahim, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, who was the guest of honour.

'The world is heading for an 'ecological credit crunch' far worse than the current financial crisis because people are over-using natural resources,' said Dr Yacoob.