I was in second year of my bachelor’s course when Dr. Maitry of neighboring college Miranda House gave a guest lecture at my college SGTB Khalsa College on environmental protection. My college faculty has always taught us the way of sustainable living, living in harmony with nature and respect the equity. We were aware about various environmental issues but one thing that touched my heart during Dr. Maitry talk was when she said, “we all should do our bit to protect the nature, don’t think that just your contribution will not make any difference, always remember Raja Ramohan Roy and Gandhiji have started the revolution alone and later people joined in”. This statement has motivated me to work for environment protection and now as an educator, I often say the same to my students to motivate them to be a change agent and mark beginning of a new revolution.
Education indeed is a long term process but I feel the most essential step towards sustainability. Education is critical for promoting sustainable development and improving the capacity of the people to address environment and development issues. We cannot separate ENVIRONMENT and DEVELOPMENT. These two words are deeply interconnected and therefore development in sustainable manner is the need of hour.
Promoting Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) was first discussed in year 1977 at Tbilisi Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education which had lead to have “EDUCATION” as integral part in Agenda 21 of United Nations, in fact “EDUCATION” the second most used word in entire Agenda 21. Although education is an important part of entire document of Agenda 21 but Chapter 36 focuses on “Promoting Education, Public Awareness and Training”.
I recently met Prof. Charles Hopkins, the author of Chapter 36 of Agenda 21 and discussed the importance of ESD in present time. Charles Hopkins is at York University in Toronto where he holds both a UNESCO Chair and a United Nations University Chair. The UNESCO Chair coordinates an international network of teacher education institutions working upon the reorientation of teacher education to address sustainable development. Prof. Hopkins is an advisor to UNESCO and UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD). He played major roles in both the Rio and Johannesburg UN Summits on Sustainability.
During discussion with Prof. Hopkins, I understood how ESD is important in both formal and informal education and also that an effective means of communication is needed for the same. It is also critical for achieving environmental and ethical awareness, values & attitude, skill & behaviour consistent with sustainable development and for effective public participation in decision making. There is need to increase public sensitivity towards environment and involving them in the solution and foster a sense of personal environment responsibility. I would like to quote here a statement from Para 36.5.(b) “Due respect should be given to the community-defined needs and diverse knowledge systems, including science, cultural and social sensitivities.” We all would agree that traditional systems and practices were in harmony with their environment, it is the recent development practice which harms the environment. Now is the time when we should look back to the history and try to understand how people use to live.
In the following video, Prof. Hopkins is talking about ESD and Earth Charter at Centre for Environment Education (CEE) during Earth Charter Conference on Ethical Framework for a Sustainable World. He is talking about similar beginning of ESD and Earth Charter at Rio and how both are vital, timely and needed. Also what are the problems with ESD implementation at present time.
The Bonn declaration which Prof. Hopkins is talking about can be found here.
India has already steped forwarded towards ESD and CEE has been identified as the National Implementing Agency for Implementing DESD in India by the Indian National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO (INC UNESCO), Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India. A National Committee on DESD has been formed with representations from the government, NGOs and subject experts to guide the implementation process for DESD. Some of the key components of the strategy on ESD for India would build upon existing experiences and initiatives, while strengthening areas of strategic focus for ESD. These include:
• Facilitating ESD through national networks and programmes;
• Aligning ESD objectives with national and global priorities and work with existing national strategies and guiding documents;
• Intersectoral Cooperation, Partnership and Networking at local, national, regional and international levels.
The details about DESD can be found here.
Shri. Kartikeya Sarabhai has indeed unique way of explaining things. Following video is about Shri. Sarabhai's thought on ESD.
Education indeed is a long term process but I feel the most essential step towards sustainability. Education is critical for promoting sustainable development and improving the capacity of the people to address environment and development issues. We cannot separate ENVIRONMENT and DEVELOPMENT. These two words are deeply interconnected and therefore development in sustainable manner is the need of hour.
Promoting Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) was first discussed in year 1977 at Tbilisi Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education which had lead to have “EDUCATION” as integral part in Agenda 21 of United Nations, in fact “EDUCATION” the second most used word in entire Agenda 21. Although education is an important part of entire document of Agenda 21 but Chapter 36 focuses on “Promoting Education, Public Awareness and Training”.
I recently met Prof. Charles Hopkins, the author of Chapter 36 of Agenda 21 and discussed the importance of ESD in present time. Charles Hopkins is at York University in Toronto where he holds both a UNESCO Chair and a United Nations University Chair. The UNESCO Chair coordinates an international network of teacher education institutions working upon the reorientation of teacher education to address sustainable development. Prof. Hopkins is an advisor to UNESCO and UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD). He played major roles in both the Rio and Johannesburg UN Summits on Sustainability.
During discussion with Prof. Hopkins, I understood how ESD is important in both formal and informal education and also that an effective means of communication is needed for the same. It is also critical for achieving environmental and ethical awareness, values & attitude, skill & behaviour consistent with sustainable development and for effective public participation in decision making. There is need to increase public sensitivity towards environment and involving them in the solution and foster a sense of personal environment responsibility. I would like to quote here a statement from Para 36.5.(b) “Due respect should be given to the community-defined needs and diverse knowledge systems, including science, cultural and social sensitivities.” We all would agree that traditional systems and practices were in harmony with their environment, it is the recent development practice which harms the environment. Now is the time when we should look back to the history and try to understand how people use to live.
In the following video, Prof. Hopkins is talking about ESD and Earth Charter at Centre for Environment Education (CEE) during Earth Charter Conference on Ethical Framework for a Sustainable World. He is talking about similar beginning of ESD and Earth Charter at Rio and how both are vital, timely and needed. Also what are the problems with ESD implementation at present time.
The Bonn declaration which Prof. Hopkins is talking about can be found here.
India has already steped forwarded towards ESD and CEE has been identified as the National Implementing Agency for Implementing DESD in India by the Indian National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO (INC UNESCO), Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India. A National Committee on DESD has been formed with representations from the government, NGOs and subject experts to guide the implementation process for DESD. Some of the key components of the strategy on ESD for India would build upon existing experiences and initiatives, while strengthening areas of strategic focus for ESD. These include:
• Facilitating ESD through national networks and programmes;
• Aligning ESD objectives with national and global priorities and work with existing national strategies and guiding documents;
• Intersectoral Cooperation, Partnership and Networking at local, national, regional and international levels.
The details about DESD can be found here.
Shri. Kartikeya Sarabhai has indeed unique way of explaining things. Following video is about Shri. Sarabhai's thought on ESD.
Shri. Sarabhai's way of explaining had truly helped me understanding sustainability and motivates me to work towards the same. It is indeed the time when we all should look into education in more broader term and value its contribution towards sustainability. I would like to end with Prof Hopkins statement during UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development;
"ESD is one of the more powerful tools for preparing civilizations for the future. There is hope if we begin to collaborate on a global scale to see a more sustainable future for all as the ultimate goal of humanity."
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