Promising a sustainable development, a safer world for our children

BANGKOK, Thailand – Early last December, I attended the 10th APEID (Asia Pacific Educational Innovation for Development) International Conference in Bangkok with the theme, Learning Together for Tomorrow: Education for Sustainable Development. This brought together about 350 participants from the Asia Pacific countries — members of APEID network as well as ESD educational practitioners to promote the UN DESD 2005-2014.

As early as December 2002, the United Nations adopted a resolution on the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UN DESD) during the 57th Session of the UN General Assembly. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan exclaimed, "Our biggest challenge in this new century is to take an idea that seems abstract — sustainable development — and turn it into a reality for all the world’s people."

In October 2005, UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura went to the UN General Assembly to accept the UN official designation of UNESCO as the lead agency of DESD. He said, "…sustainable development must be a concrete reality for all of us — individuals, organizations, governments — in all of our daily decisions and actions, so as to promise a sustainable planet and a safer world to our children, our grandchildren and their descendants."

This Decade was launched officially during the 33rd UNESCO General Conference 2005 in Paris wherein our UNESCO National Commission (NatCom) Chairman and Secretary of Foreign Affairs Alberto Romulo led the Philippine contingent. In his policy statement at the plenary, Secretary Romulo announced that the Philippines was willing to host the Lifelong Learning Center for Sustainable Development in Asia Pacific.

Preparations for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development

ACCU (Asian Cultural Center for UNESCO) of Tokyo received the honor of being the lead agency in the promotion of ESD in Asia and the Pacific. Thus, it held several meetings and conferences in preparation for the DESD. In July 2004, together with 14 UNESCO Secretaries-General of Asian countries, I attended the Regional Seminar on Capacity Building for Educational Innovation for Sustainable Development organized by ACCU and NIER (National Institute for Educational Policy Research). What we did in Tokyo was to analyze how Member States in the AsPac region could implement programs for the Decade to reinforce the UNMDG (Millennium Development Goals).

To develop a network of ESD projects among the 41 UNESCO AsPac Member States, UNESCO-ACCU Tokyo organized two seminars in December 2005 and February 2006. Both seminars were under the UNESCO/Japan Funds-in-Trust for the promotion of ESD in Asia and the Pacific. The main agenda was to discuss the implementing rules and guidelines for the search for Centers of Excellence and Innovative Practices for ESD, which was launched in March 2006.

At about the same time, I was invited to be a part of the Guidelines Review Team comprised of 80 ESD practitioners and indicators experts from around the globe, including representatives of the UNESCO NatCom and field offices in Asia and the Pacific. Spearheaded by UNESCO Bangkok Regional office, Commission on Education and Communication (CEC) of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), in conjunction with Macquarie University (MU) of Adelaide, Australia, the "Expert Team" and the "Guidelines Review Team" shared experiences and assisted in developing the ESD indicators on the national level.

Our input and those from the ESD Expert Team has shaped the final document that the Guidelines Development Team composed of Dr. Derek Elias of UNESCO Bangkok, IUCN CEC Vice-Chair Keith Wheeler, IUCN Asia Communications Coordinator Denise Jeanmonod, Joel Bacha of Kanda University International Studies, Prof. Daniella Tilbury and Sonja Janousek of MU has put together.

Stakeholders confront the difficulties of contributing to the Decade

The huge Bangkok conference confronted the major problems of seeking the national ESD indicators for each Member State. Each one had different types of ESD indicators for their "National ESD Plan of Action". They often overlap in function and purpose. Clear and simple boundaries cannot be simply defined. However, the range of indicator types has been included so that stakeholders understand all options available, since it is usual to limit our work to what we know and not acknowledge the efforts of others in ESD.

To harmonize this work, the participants somehow succeeded in accomplishing four objectives. First, facilitate networking, linkages, exchange and interaction among stakeholders in ESD. Second, in their common desire to increase quality of teaching and learning, most of them agreed to undergo complete educational reform that will promote the spirit of sustainable development. Third, all agreed that ESD is the only pathway to reinforce and attain the UN MDG. Lastly, most participants admitted that defining ESD and incorporating it in teacher training and curriculum is difficult because of its abstract quality.

The International Implementation Scheme (IIS) sets out a broad framework for all stakeholders to contribute to the Decade. Promotion and advancement of the Decade are translated into seven key strategies: vision-building and advocacy; consultation and ownership; partnerships and networks; capacity-building and training; research and innovation; use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs); and, monitoring and evaluation.

A clear and concrete ESD Framework presented by the Philippines

The role of the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines is as initiator and catalyst in developing the national ESD indicators. As the SecGen of UNACOM, I presented The Experience of using the Montessori System with regard to the UNESCO Lifelong Learning Centre for Sustainable Development of the Philippines: "The declaration of DESD pointed to the necessity of building human capacity to meet both the needs of the present and the future. Education is a process of learning how to become, how to change, how to transform and fulfill life. ESD should be based on the true nature of the child. To reach the goals of DESD, we must veer away from pedagogy to psychology."

"Through Executive Order 483, the Philippine Government issued a national policy on ESD ‘establishing the UNESCO Lifelong Learning Centre for Sustainable Development of the Philippines’ and ‘designating the Operation Brotherhood Montessori Center Inc. (OBMCI) as the national laboratory of the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, as well as the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority’ to address the life-skills educational requirements for reaching the DESD goals. The Centre will share its facilities, experiences and technical expertise with Member States of the Asia-Pacific region."

Re-orienting teacher education to address sustainability

During the Bangkok Conference, several versions of ESD were presented:

ROSALYN McKEOWN of University of Tennessee, USA reported that in 1998, the UN Commission on Sustainable Development tasked the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chair at York University in Canada to establish an International Network of 30 teacher-education institutions from 28 countries. Since 2000, participants who were willing to change their curricula, programmes, and policies in locally-relevant and culturally-appropriate ways, kept track of their efforts, chronicling successes and failures. This was synthesized in the "Guidelines and Recommendations for Reorienting Teacher Education to Address Sustainability" published by UNESCO. (OBMC has a scientific and universally-tested Montessori curriculum, which is easily adaptable to each culture since it addresses the true characteristics of the learner from infancy to adulthood.)

CHAN LEAN HENG of the Universiti Sains Malaysia explained that "Education and teachers are key drivers for the attainment of sustainable development (SD). However teachers need to be equipped with the perspectives, knowledge, skills and values of SD before they can orient their students. The social aspects tend to be neglected in school curricula in relation to the environmental aspects." She reviewed the current instructional pedagogies of teacher educator institutions and proposes an education methodology. (However, this is only a proposal.)

ATHAPOL ANUNTHAVORASAKUL of the Chulalongkorn University, Thailand explained that their "Faculty of Education has several courses and programmes for undergraduate and graduate students related to the concepts of SD and ESD. At present, it offers eight ESD courses in the pre-service teacher education curriculum." In each course, attitudes and skills from various disciplines are integrated in courses such as Education and Society, Society and Education for Sustainability, Environmental Education, Man and Environment, Peace Education, as well as Teacher and Community Development. In addition, courses such as Education in the Future Society for 20 Masters Programmes in education, as well as Critical Analysis in Education and ESD for 11 Doctoral programmes in education have been developed as required core courses for all graduate Education programmes. (ESD seem to be oversimplified by Chulalongkorn University to be able to provide 31 post-graduate ESD courses overnight.)

TARUNA CHOUDHERY DHALL of the Kurukshetra University, India reported that "in recent years globalization has exposed humans to previously unimagined consumption patterns, fostering greed and resulting in the erosion of values. This prompted us to explore possibilities of putting an education system that aims at individual development in harmony with nature and society." She added that a study of a pre-service teacher education programme in northern India revealed that the design of the curriculum primarily caters to the development of knowledge (about content) and teaching skills, but is apparently deficient in the development of feelings about self and others. She concluded that there is a need for interpersonal values and empathy.

Education for sustainable agricultural innovations and practices

THE AGRICULTURAL AND FORESTRY RESEARCH CENTRE at the University of Tsukuba, Japan was nominated by UNESCO as an Associated Centre of APEID in the field of vocational and technical education. It has organized the Tsukuba Asian Seminar on Agricultural Education (TASAE) yearly since 1979: "Agri Educ at the Secondary Level in Asia"; "Strategies for Innovation of Agri Educ in Asian Countries"; "Educ and Research for Higher Agri Productivity in AsPac Countries"; "Educ and Research for SD of Agri and Conserving Nature and Agro Ecosystem in AsPac Countries"; "Innovative Strategies for Linking Agri and Environmental Educ in AsPac Countries for the 21st Century"; "The Utilization and Conservation Techniques of Water Resources for Human Survival and Bio-production Environment Considering SD, and the Role of Agro-Environmental Educ". These seminars have been attended by about 350 participants from Southeast Asian countries, making the seminars a channel for a powerful network.

THE OBIHIRO UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE, Japan, became an Associated Center of APEID in July 1979. In 2001, the Obihiro Asia-Pacific Seminar on Education for Rural Development (OASERD) has focused on global environmental issues and ESD of agri sectors in the rural areas of the AsPac region. It organized the seminar, "Prevention of Global Warming and Education on Agri and Dairy Farming Technologies and Rural Development", to share information, knowledge and technologies, as well as to construct network in the region.

(The 8-year old OB Montessori Alfonso Farm is designed by Kasetsart University Professor M.L. Charuphant "Noi" Thongtham, patterned after His Royal Highness Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s "self-sufficiency farm". A productive upland farm, located at Sulsuguin, Alfonso, Cavite it has been planted with vegetables, ornamentals, and fruit trees. Supplementing the income are the red tilapia fishpond, bird aviary, fern gully, orchidarium, and tissue culture laboratory. This is envisioned to help the farmers in the vicinity to earn more money with quality crops.)

UNACOM chair Alberto Romulo invites Cabinet members to implement ESD

Deputy SecGen Pham Quang Tho of the UNESCO NatCom of Vietnam reported that their UNACOM is the central agency for the development of national ESD indicators. It has named all the Ministers of its different departments to be commissioners of its UNACOM. There is no need for regular meetings. The Secretary General disseminates the information, which is implemented by all departments involved. Thus, it does not need a big budget to work out all the programs and projects of UNESCO.

It is hoped that we can achieve an inter-agency linkage to implement our National Plan of Action for ESD. Thus, UNACOM Chairman and Secretary of Foreign Affairs Alberto Romulo has requested a meeting of all cabinet secretaries to be part of the National ESD Committee spearheaded by UNACOM.

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