Sustainable Development Education in Schools

Sustainable Development Education is an emerging discipline. In fact, it is one of those innovative fields of education linking a child’s overall development to the future challenges of society from global as well as local perspectives.

Why Sustainable Development Education for Children?

The fundamental reason is to make children aware of the importance of sustainable development right from the very beginning of their schooling. However, the citizens, teachers and mentors in the country need to understand that economic development, social development, and concern for the environment all go hand in hand.

Often, kids, in different parts of the world, grow up in environment that is hazardous. The major reason for imparting such education is to empower children with the knowledge of issues threatening planetary sustainability. This way, the children are encouraged to cultivate several ideas and think for the future betterment.

Sustainable Development education is indeed a productive framework for meaningful learning. It is completely opposite to rote learning and mere acquisition of facts where there is less or no understanding of concepts and situations. By making kids understand the real problems, we can help develop a much better and clearer understanding of the concepts not only through school curriculum but also from real-life situations.

How Schools Can Contribute Towards Sustainable Development Education?

Schools carry the onus of nurturing the youngest of the minds. Facilitating Sustainable Development education at such basic level will help the schools nurture responsible citizens of the world since the very beginning.

It is in schools that the children can be sensitised about the need of making eco-friendly buildings, solar power panels, water conservation measures, recycling systems, and tree plantations. More importantly, such initiatives will be truly fruitful when they are planned as school and community projects where the children actually understand the results of their actions.

How to challenge students’ thinking on the future? How to include sustainable development education in the curriculum in a meaningful manner? How can the teachers collaborate for creating stimulating activities pertaining to this subject? How can the students be helped to think of environmental issues globally as well as locally? Schools are the best places to ask these thought-provoking questions.

As responsible citizens of the world, it is our duty to make our children aware of the complex problems that the world will face in absence of sustainable development. Such an education will slowly and gradually gain popularity as the problems of environmental degradation, climate change, and energy shortage, start becoming more evident.