SINGAPORE - Even Singapore's youngest can contribute towards its clean and green efforts. On Sunday, an environmental outreach programme for pre-school pupils in the Central Singapore District was launched to encourage them to help protect the environment.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) and the Central Singapore Development Council's programme will give each pre-schooler an educational package with three booklets and five activity cards, to guide their environmental practices during the three years from nursery to kindergarten 2.

Under the "I'm an Eco-Knight!" programme, the children will learn, for example, what good hygiene practices are, how to encourage others to not litter, and what causes dengue fever and how to prevent it.

Each activity card will have tasks of varying difficulty, and any pre-schooler who completes the card's required tasks and gets enough credits may be awarded a badge by his or her teacher.

The NEA and the council will work with school principals and teachers to roll out the programme, and pre-schools will cover the content in the booklets and monitor the children's progress with the activity cards.

They aim to reach out to 30 kindergartens in the Central Singapore District within the next year, and all 122 kindergartens in the district within three years.