Summary of Working Group Ion Education
Working Group I discussed the issues on education for sustainable development,
including environmental education in both developed and developing countries and thepossible roles of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) in
promoting sustainable development. Various innovative initiatives in selected countries,
both in developed and developing countries were introduced. Activities for developing
teaching materials, jointly promoted by developed and developing countries werepresented.
Major points emphasized during the discussions included:
(i)

(ii)

(iii)

(iv)

(v)(vi)

Sustainable development is important both in developed and developing countries.
Fundamentally it is a challenge to reorient economic theory and practices in linewith goals of sustainable development. Some countries may start from educationfor environmentally sustainable development, and gradually expand it to abroader scope.
Sustainable development can only be achieved through formal and non-formal
education at all levels and in all sectors of society to facilitate transformation ofsociety toward sustainable development. Sustainability standards require (i)transparency and accountability, (ii) participation, (iii) equity and (iv) efficiency
and must address to economic, social and ecological sustainability. Developmentof ecological understanding is not simply another subject to be learned but should
be integrated in all subjects in all forms of education in a transparent manner.
Continuing education for all people opens up new opportunities, initiatives andprofessions to attain sustainability.
Education for sustainable development may be seen as stimulating learning at theindividual level; within organizations to transform their ways of working to beconsistent with sustainable development; and to stimulate social learning to bringabout the necessary conditions for society to move towards more sustainabledevelopment.
DESD is an effective vehicle to promote education for sustainable development.
Major objectives of DESD should be to achieve the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) and promotion of Agenda21, the Johannesburg Plan ofImplementation (JPOI) etc. In this connection, initiatives by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and relevant
partners, including those in local governments and NGO community wereappreciated.
Linkage with the on-going international educational initiatives, such as Educationfor All (EFA) and the United Nations Literacy Decade (UNLD) was clearlyrecognized. Education for sustainable development would reinforce these
initiatives by reorienting current systems and improving the quality of education.
The initiative of the Japan Council on the Decade of Education for Sustainable
Development could be a good reference for promoting DESD in respective
countries, and therefore be disseminated widely all over the world.

(vii)

Science and technology should play a key role to reorient educational curriculafor sustainability. Higher education should play an active role especially intraining and re-training of school teachers. Activities of the Ubuntu Declarationgroup for these purposes were appreciated.
(viii) New ethics need to be established on the basis of the guiding principles of theEarth Charter to attain sustainable development, including changing lifestyle.
(ix)
Education for sustainable development should be promoted, taking into accountthe diversities in social, cultural and environmental conditions at local andnational levels. There is no universal, standardized approach that can be applied toall.
(x)
Development of teaching materials and modules may be useful to provide acommon platform in both developed and developing countries.
(xi)
There is a need for greening educational systems in two ways: greening of teacher
training and educational curricula on the one hand, and greening of the entire
operation of educational institutions on the other. In this connection, the initiativeof the Global higher Education for Sustainability Partnership (GHESP) to develop
toolkit or treasure books was welcomed.
(xii) A variety of partnerships are required to involve as many stakeholders as possible
for the success of formulating and implementing DESD.
(xiii) Visions for sustainable development should be clearly articulated by respective
partners within the parameters of their own aims, concerns and programs.
(xiv) Involvement of local administration and community should be emphasized.
Experiential education and process-oriented education based on actual community
needs and requirements were proven quite useful for school children.
(xv) A representative of the ECO Youth Conference informed the Working Group of
the Action Plan adopted at the ECO Youth Conference and urged the Working
Group to consider recommendations.
Recommendations:
The Working Group made the following specific recommendations, taking into accountthe above discussions.
(i)

(ii)

(iii)

(iv)

All countries should develop their respective plans and programs on education forsustainable development, allowing diversity at the local community level. In thisrespect, economic, social and ecological sustainability should be addressed at alllevels.
Reorientation and transformation of education for sustainable development would
require strong political leadership and effective formuloation and implementationof essential policy reform.
Each country, developing or developed, is requested to consider establishinghigh-level multistakeholder national mechanisms to stimulate individual activities
by various stakeholders, facilitate their dissemination and monitor the overall
progress of DESD at the national and international levels.
More investment needs to be considered for education for strengthening
institutional capacity to promote sustainable development, especially at the local

level, taking into account the on-going decentralization processes in variouscountries. Donor organizations are urged to consider increasing ODA for
education activities across all segments of population.
(v)
The scientific and technological community should be urged to provide concrete
contributions by identifying priority areas and necessary materials for reorienting
educational curricula in all forms of education.
(vi)
Higher education organizations should play the key role on training and retraining of school teachers to improve teaching capability on sustainability. They
should also consider working more closely with other partners such as primaryand secondary schools and also community-based organizations.
(vii) The business sector should be encouraged to intensify its effort to contribute toeducation for sustainable development, in particular, community-based education
activities in terms of both technical and financial cooperation including personnelexchange.
(viii) An important role should be given to media, science musea (zoos, botanicgardens) of all kinds etc to provide the public at large with up-to-date informationand create learning opportunities to promote sustainable development.
(ix)
Active participation of NGOs and civil society with all its innovative competence,
networks and associations, should be facilitated in the activities for DESD,
particularly in those countries where their role is not fully recognized.
(x)Partners to promote DESD should consider establishment of an ethical frameworkfor sustainable development. The guiding principles in the Earth Charter could bereflected in materials used in all learning efforts to promote sustainable
development, including those in the school systems.
(xi)Such learning materials should cover both local and global issues, and reflect thecritical importance of local culture, values and conditions. Task Forces may beestablished at the national and international levels to develop modules, text books,
reorient curricula and teacher training and retraining, and also to disseminate goodpractices. The World Heritage sites could provide a good basis to develop suchmaterials.
(xii)
Locally-based, integrated, holistic approaches should be encouraged. A few
demonstration projects should be undertaken to promote regional (as parts of acountry) centers of excellence for education for sustainable development, with theparticipation of local institutions of primary, secondary and tertiary education,
non-formal education, research institutions, museums and local governments etc.
deemed as appropriate. This might be considered as a first step to create global
learning space through networking of regional centers of excellence.
(xiii) UNESCO and its partner organizations should make their utmost efforts tomobilize as many partners as possible to contribute to the formulation andimplementation of the International Implementation Scheme for DESD,
particularly through extensive consultation processes. They should also facilitate
the networking of partners who promote education for sustainable development.
(xiv) UNESCO should consider developing a concrete calendar on DESD to document
activities of all partners, in particular in 2004-2005 to kick off the Decade.