There has been a negative relation between population growth and the availability of natural resources. With 7 billion people of the world population and limited natural resources, it’s easy to predict the shortening span of the earth’s ability to support us. That is if we and the generations to come are sticking to the habit of mindlessly exploiting and consuming our resources.
In addition to this problem, the current and previous generations are facing cultural problems such as limited human rights, diversity and the impacts of warfare. These challenges makes it even harder to unite societies to face worldwide problems without creating tensions.
Many solutions have been initiated to prevent and resolve those problems. Yet the hardest challenge is to raise awareness and change the mindset of the larger society. Reshaping today’s generation, let alone still-existing previous generations, is a tough job, but there’s a greater hope to shape future generations who are still in the phase of learning. A rising global movement that is to shape the education system towards sustainable awareness and action is UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).
What is ESD?
As a fundamental learning platform (after family, of course), education contributes significantly in shaping a person’s way of thinking. Therefore, there is a great chance to internalize the awareness of taking action towards building a sustainable future through education. Education for Sustainable Development tries to integrate issues related to sustainability by reorienting education, specifically by integrating its values in formal curriculums. The aim is to direct people’s knowledge, skills, values and behaviours towards sustainable development. People are encouraged to be responsible for creating solutions to problems such as climate change, biodiversity, cultural diversity tensions and so forth.
As part of UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), ESD is an implementation of the fourth goal which is Quality Education and also contributes in Education 2030 Framework for Action. Ideally, it is hoped that by 2030 all learners must have the knowledge and skills needed to build a sustainable life, which does not only cover environmental sustainability, but also social matters such as lifestyle, human rights, gender equality, peace and non-violence culture, global citizenship and cultural diversity.
Simply put, ESD empowers learners to make decisions that uphold environmental integrity, economic viability and fair society whilst keeping peace and tolerance within cultural diversity.
How has it been?
In 2018, a Southeast Asia Education for Sustainable Development teacher educators’ network was created in Bangkok, Thailand. Aside from this, Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) cooperates with UNESCO in the project Sustainability Begins with Teachers, in which 26 universities from Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Laos and Thailand have participated. Participating institutions has slowly implement ESD values to its education. For example, quoting from a report by UNESCO Bangkok:
“In Cambodia, the Faculty of Education of the Royal University of Phnom Penh worked with students to change all standard street lighting to solar-powered lighting, as well as to clean wastewater using a plant and solar powered oxygenation process. In the Philippines, Cebu Technological University, in cooperation with the University of San Jose Recoletos, mobilized the whole university to plan for integrating ESD into ongoing extension projects including those for literacy and skills training and community building. In Indonesia, the Universitas Gadjah Mada organized an ESD workshop which allowed teacher education institutions in Yogyakarta to better understand ESD and join various community movements such as the River Restoration Movement and Rain Water Harvesting Movement. In Thailand, the Faculty of Education of Chulalongkorn University held a workshop with a university in U.S. for their graduate students to analyze common issues from environmental, social and economic perspectives.”