two summer schools will be held to help students understand the politics of the development work aaditi isaac reports the centre for science and environment cse will be holding two summer schools where two courses agenda for survival june 1 to 30 and challenge of the balance international school august 1 to 30 will be taught to students about to enter college or for those students about to begin their phds the two summer schools aim to bring together likeminded young people from diverse disciplines arts science commerce etc to understand that environment is not only about science but also about the sociology politics anthropology and very much integral to our being we want to build a cadre of dedicated young students and professionals who would understand the issues and take forward the discussion of environment and development poverty democracy justice and most importantly equity the lectures help participants to understand and critically evaluate issues that lie at the interface of environment and development poverty democracy equity and justice says aditya batra programme director south asia programme cse the areas covered include environmental governance poverty and the biomass economy ecological rights and natural resource management amongst others a special focus of the course is on climate change politics the monthlong course work adopts a mix of learning approaches from classroom lectures and seminars to local field excursions and group project work a highlight of this course is the opportunity for participants to closely interact with rural communities during a weeklong field visit during the field trip students explore the efforts of local communities as course assignment students produce a magazine that they write edit design layout entirely on their own informs batra the course faculty includes eminent academicians noted activists and policymakers external faculty like kanchi kohli member national green tribunal academician activist and member kalpvriksh ritwik dutta environment lawyer etc besides cses internal faculty will be taking classes he says both programmes have 25 seats each we look for the candidates interest in studies volunteer work undertaken the shortlisted candidates undergo a telephonic interview we judge them on answers to questions like how this month long course will benefit them during their college course work present job if they are already working what changes if any they would like to bring about etc a basic understanding of english is required as all lectures are in english says batra students need to send in their cv for shortlisting last date of acceptance of cv is april 21 for agenda for survival the last date for challenge of the balance is april 29