A Case for Education for Sustainable Development

Marjorie Drake
Primary Education Support Worker at Lancashire Global Education Centre.

Autumn 2001

"Sustainable Development" is now part of the national curriculum - but what does it mean? How can teachers begin to tackle it in the classroom, and make it part of their school ethos? It is a huge challenge, but one that must be faced if we are to have any hope of building a safer, fairer world for our children, and improving the quality of life for everyone, now and in the future.

In June 1992, 179 governments came together at Rio de Janeiro for the UN Summit on Environment and Development - the "Earth Summit". This was the first time that environment and development issues had been considered together at the highest levels, and it led to the creation of Agenda 21 - a programme for change in the 21st century, to be worked on by all governments at national and local level. Next year in Johannesburg, another Summit will be held, the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to look at what has been achieved in the past ten years and what still has to be done. The last summit attracted huge media coverage and it likely that this one will get even greater publicity, given the current world situation - so it will be a good time to raise these issues in schools.

"The very issues being talked about...at the World Summit... are those that form an essential part of the 4 national curricula of the UK. Issues such as justice, equality, sustainable development and environmental protection can be found in many curriculum areas including science, geography, citizenship or personal and social education...One of the key issues to be addressed is the link between environmental mismanagement and poverty...examining the links between economic, social and environmental issues. Creating awareness of such links and encouraging informed debate is the raison d'etre of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)". (WWF newsletter "Lifelines" Autumn 2001).

Tony Blair has said about this Summit: "It is not just about the environment. It is about sustainable development as a whole...the reduction of poverty, relief from debt, widening educational opportunity, tackling disease and linking these goals to those of conserving the natural resources upon which the poorest depend for clean water, food, fresh air and their living".

Similarly, ESD is not just about teaching children to recycle, or improving their school grounds - valuable as these activities are. It is about making the connections between their lives and the wider picture - finding out where their food and clothes come from and the conditions in which they are produced; looking at how their use of energy affects people in other countries ; and even more important, exploring ways to make their impact more benign. "It's in the classroom that many of the ideas and principles of fairness, equality and justice will be forged among tomorrow's generation of decision-makers and consumers. The success of the Summit rests, in part, with the schools". (WWF Lifelines)

One project currently being undertaken in 8 regions of the UK is called Global Footprints - the idea is to work with schools to explore their impact on the earth and to find ways of reducing it (See separate article for more details.)

Young people from all round the world are already involved in thinking about how to challenge their governments to do more to fulfil the promises of Rio. Peace Child, an international children's organisation run by young people and based in Hertfordshire, is encouraging them to find out how much has been achieved, and to contribute to a book on the subject to follow up their hugely successful Rescue Mission Planet Earth - a children's edition of Agenda 21. They are calling their campaign Rescue 2002 and are asking for local research, editorials, poems, paintings, illustrations and cartoons by December 1st. There may be a chance to help edit the publication and even to attend the Summit! (to find out more, contact RM 2002, TheWhite House, 46 High Street, Buntingford, Herts SG9 9AH - or online at www.peacechild.org/rescue 2002).

WWF is also offering young people and their teachers a chance to attend the Summit, as well as cash grants, after studying the issues they are most concerned with. They can be contacted at WWF UK, Panda House, Weyside Park, Godalming, Surrey GU7 1XR., or look at their website www.wwf-uk.org.

All these initiatives illustrate clearly one very important aspect of ESD - the need to get young people involved, to give them a voice and a means of expressing what they feel, and to see how they can make a difference in their own lives. There are many more organisations which will give support, and lots of resources to help - the best place to contact to find out more about these is your local DEC. If you feel a bit isolated in your school, try and join a network of others who are involved - perhaps through the DEC, WWF, or the VSO Teacher's Network. While single classroom initiatives have their value, ESD should be seen as a whole school priority and also needs to involve the school community - so teachers should not have to struggle to introduce it on their own.

Jonathan Porrit said recently: "We are at a critical crossroads for our planetary family. We could carry straight on, making piecemeal changes...We could turn sharp right, and return to the rape and pillage of the natural environment to feed our human pleasures...or we could turn sharp left, and ratchet up our commitment to improving the lot of the human family, especially its poorest members - while at the same time conserving and restoring our natural resources for future generations.... I believe it to be critical for humanity's future that we choose the last of these three courses". It is in schools that the seeds of this commitment must be sown.

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