APPENDIX 20
Letter to the Clerk of the Committee from
Environmental Education Advisers' Association
I am writing on behalf of the Association which
represents those employed by Local Education Authorities (LEAs)
in providing advice, support and training to schools, and to resource
providers for schools, in education for sustainable development.
It is our firm belief that sustainable development
and genuine public engagement in sustainability in the future
is not properly achievable without well-implemented education
for sustainable development in schools. While there have
been encouraging advances within the taught curriculum of schools
and to a lesser extent in living the lessons of sustainability
within school communities[12],
we are a long way from having truly effective education for sustainable
development (ESD) embedded as a natural, everyday aspect of curriculum
and life in schools. There are a number of good examples of school
communities where ESD infuses the curriculum and where the whole
community manages the resources in ways that minimise the negative
and maximize the positive impacts of the school on society, economy
and environment[13].
These examples are too few, too thinly spread and sometimes built
on the work of a few committed individuals. Indeed, these initiatives
in schools are often not, in themselves, sustainable in the long
term.
The keys to successful ESD in schools include:
— Clear long-term vision;
— General agreement of the whole school
community on the underpinning values of ESD;
— The support of the whole school community;
— Time and resources allocated to achieve
the vision;
However, it is doubtful that long term and truly
sustainable change can come without linking to, and support from,
external sources. Such sources include other like-minded schools,
NGOs and, we believe, from LEAs. Although the nature of schools
does vary to some extent from one LEA to another, there is considerable
variation in the sources of external support and help to schools
from one part of the country to another.
In some LEAs where there has been a degree of
commitment from the LEA to ESD and where officers and advisers
have some time allocated to ESD, there have been significant steps
forward in providing the infrastructure that may lead to the raising
of the quality of ESD in schools[14].
It is noteworthy that the number of advisers with a specific responsibility
for ESD (often in the past under the name of environmental education
(EE)) has dropped drastically in the last few years. In fact,
those with the designation of EE or ESD have found their time
increasingly diverted to other responsibilities. Schools need
external direction, advice, training and an infrastructure to
maintain their development as much as they need them internally.
It helps that schools pull in the same direction
and learn from each other. Similarly, also LEAs need to be pulling
in the same direction and learning from each other's experiences.
We feel that a National Strategy for ESD would enable a considerable
advance for sustainable development itself. The Association was
involved in the consultations over the National Strategy with
the Council for Environmental Education last year. The examples
of keys to successful ESD in schools listed above hold true for
LEAs and for our education system as a whole. Any National Strategy
should incorporate such keys and include the necessary infrastructure
at a local level.
If LEAs and partner organisations were empowered
by central government with a mandate to facilitate improved ESD
in schools then you have a strong organizing core to the infrastructure
necessary at ground level. This needs to be complemented by increased
central direction, including an explicit vision for ESD in education.
We feel that the DfES should be taking a lead in this, helping
to co-ordinate the activities of other government departments.
To assist this fortifying of the message from
the top down, ESD should be a part of the inspection process in
schools (both in terms of the quality of teaching and learning
of ESD and also in how schools manage their resources) and its
place strengthened still further in the curriculum by the QCA.
It would also help to ensure that ESD figures significantly, for
example, in the work of the Teacher Training Agency and the National
College of School Leadership so that both initial and in-service
training has a focus on ESD.
Existing "campaigns" such as Eco-Schools
have had a positive impact on a relative small number of schools
where preconditions for success are already laid or where there
is significant input from an external infrastructure. An example
is in Staffordshire LEA where the authority at one time devoted
important human resources to supporting the project, with very
encouraging results[15].
Eco-Schools is but one example of several initiatives that are
fine ideas and processes if they are supported better at the local
level.
ESD offers a distinctive and important vision
for schools, school communities and the wider communities in which
they sit[16].
This consultation is a real opportunity to develop education for
sustainable development in our schools.
February 2003
12 These are documented well in the National Curriculum
ESD web site-www.nc.uk.net/esd/ Back
13
See, for example, schools documented in the ESD Newsletter of
Devon LEA-http://www.devon.gov.uk/dcs/geog/index.html Back
14
You have already received a submission from Susan Falsch-Lovesey
of Norfolk LEA, which exemplifies the kind of infrastructure that
can emerge given time and direction on behalf of the LEA. Back
15
Other LEAs where there has been good practice in supporting schools
in becoming more sustainable include Worcestershire, Durham, Birmingham
and Suffolk. Other LEAs where there has been good practice in
supporting schools in becoming more sustainable include Worcestershire,
Durham, Birmingham and Suffolk. Back
16
It has been estimated that up to a third of the population are
part of school communities as pupils, parents, teachers, governors
etc. The message of sustainable development touches a large proportion
of the population if it emanates from school! Back
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