APPENDIX 27
Letter to the Clerk of the Committee from
Emma Murray, Schools Sustainability Project Officer
I hope it is not too late to reply to this appeal.
I feel very strongly about ESD because I am a professional who
has been involved at grass roots level for five years to get ESD
up high on the school agenda. I have coordinated two projects
for developing and coordinating county-wide ESD strategies for
the schools sector. The first, in Wales, was so successful aspects
of it have been used by ACCAC and the National Assembly as a demonstration
of good practice nationally. But then the Welsh National Assembly
do seem to take the sustainability agenda more seriously than
we do over here in England.
Unfortunately, I am unable to write to you in
my professional capacity through my current role due to organisational
difficulties being placed to make the role happen. The lack of
funding, Government support, DfES backing , strategic planning,
target setting, etc, etc, towards ESD places it low on the schools
agenda here in England. I have spent a year trying to climb the
parapets set high by the Local Authorities Education Service,
battling with education politics and facing barrier after barrier
to move the ESD agenda forward here. The resistance from education
is phenomenal and things will not change unless there is central
support for this fundamental aspect of education from central
government.
I have conducted research into ESD and the schools
sector back in 1998-2000. The work was groundbreaking at the time
and published. I recently conducted an extensive consultation
exercise into ESD through the county I am now based. The results
have changed little in the past 4-5 years. Teachers are still
uncertain of their role, they lack a fundamental understanding
about the concept of sustainable development and I am not provided
with the support or resources from education, locally or nationally,
to make a significant change in the circumstances.
Joined-up-thinking between the DfES and other
government departments? No! How can we run national awareness
campaigns on, for example, encouraging the nation to recycle and
then not provide the where with all for schools themselves to
set in place a sustainable waste management programme? We are
not exactly reinforcing teaching and learning.
I can provide dozens of examples of good and
bad practice, talk at a grass roots level about the practical
implications of moving an ESD programme forward through the schools
sector and discuss the current attitudes towards ESD from and
educational and business perspective and would invite further
queries.
Until this becomes recognised as part of the
national agenda it will not move forward, how can people live
and act more sustainably if they lack the fundamental understanding
of what the philosophy is all about. We need an integrated approach
and education is where it should start.
February 2003
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