APPENDIX 37
Memorandum submitted by the Royal Society
for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)
1. EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
1.1 The RSPB believes that sustainable development
is the one of the most important challenges facing society in
the 21st Century and that education of society is the key to its
adoption. We welcome the Government's commitment to implement
Education for Sustainable Development. This submission concentrates
on areas where we believe the Government can improve its Education
for Sustainable Development (ESD) performance. These include:
— The need for a coherent Government
Strategy on ESD;
— The need for support for the formal
education sector;
— Further and Higher Education;
— The role of the Department for Education
and Skills (DfES);
— The role of the Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (Defra);
— The role of the Government Panel
on ESD.
1.2 We believe that there are substantial
improvements that the Government could undertake which would fulfil
its sustainable development commitments while supporting the many
statutory and voluntary bodies that help deliver successful implementation.
2. THE RSPB AND
EDUCATION FOR
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
2.1 From its formation over 100 years ago,
the RSPB has believed that the key to ensuring that the importance
of conserving habitats and the environment lies in public awareness
and education. The success of sustainable development rests ultimately
on individuals supporting it as a principle, and more importantly
making conscious lifestyle decisions that support it in practice.
It is therefore imperative that understanding of and support for
sustainable development is actively nurtured.
2.2 As an ongoing commitment to public awareness,
the RSPB spends around £5 million per year on its public
awareness and educational functions. Our one million members are
an important constituency, and all communications with members
and supporters are designed to develop their commitment to sustainable
development. In addition to broad-based public awareness functions
we:
— Produce and disseminate resources
for the formal education sector, designed to support the delivery
of the National Curriculum in the classroom. These resources are
country specific and are produced to support the delivery of the
curriculum in each country of the UK;
— Offer structured educational programmes,
linked to the National Curriculum, on thirty-five nature reserves
around the UK;
— Are committed to life-long learning
and produce on-line educational packages;
— Are especially active in professional
development for sustainability, specifically in the land-use and
agriculture industries;
— Are working to promote ESD within
the global Birdlife International partnership and have active
educational programmes in Europe, West and Southern Africa;
— Have sat on the Government Panel
for ESD and played a leading role in the development of its Sustainable
Development Curriculum submission which led to major changes in
the 2000 curriculum.
3. THE NEED
FOR A
GOVERNMENT STRATEGY
ON ESD
3.1 There is undoubtedly much activity across
many Government Departments and Agencies on education for sustainable
development. DfES, Defra and the Department for International
Development (DfID) have all made clear commitments to sustainable
development and, through the Government's "Green Ministers"
initiative, this has been broadened to include all other Departments.
At the same time, statutory agencies such as English Nature, the
Countryside Agency and the Environment Agency are working alongside
many national and local non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
There is an urgent need to coordinate and support this work under
the umbrella of a national strategy for ESD, as there is substantial
evidence of gaps in provision and overlap and duplication in delivery.
For example, at the last count there were seventeen different
packages offered to schools on "improving your school grounds
for wildlife".
3.2 The RSPB does not believe in creating
bureaucracy for the sake of it. However, we believe that real
progress in developing individual commitment to sustainable development
is now best served by an overall strategy. This strategy must:
(i) Be developed through a consultative process
across the ESD network, and be "owned" by all stakeholders;
(ii) Be adequately resourced to enable ESD
work to be appropriately delivered;
(iii) Have measurable targets to assess performance;
(iv) Recognise and actively support the work
of statutory agencies and NGOs;
(v) Be the responsibility of one Government
department to coordinate and measure progress whilst being crosscutting
in its relevance to all departments;
(vi) Be the responsibility of a Minister
at Cabinet level.
3.3 It is arguable that the Government
Panel for ESD fulfilled most of those requirements. However, we
nevertheless believe that the Panel is substantially flawed, see
paragraph 8.
4. SUPPORT FOR
THE FORMAL
EDUCATION SECTOR
4.1 From the earliest days of ESD there
has been unanimous agreement that the formal education sector
has a pivotal role to play in promoting sustainable development.
This is because:
(i) The organisation of formal education
can make it easy to disseminate information and launch initiatives;
(ii) Young people in the formal education
sector are developing their ethics and principles and are a receptive
audience for sustainable development.
4.2 This pivotal role was recognised by
the Government in the 2000 National Curriculum when it defined
a major role for the curriculum as "developing their (pupils)
awareness and understanding of, and respect for, the environments
in which they live and secure their commitment to sustainable
development at a personal, local, national and global level".
The RSPB applauds the Government for its adoption of these principles
but we believe that there are substantial barriers to achieving
success. We would urge the Government to:
(i) Acknowledge the importance of this commitment
to sustainable development education by including ESD in every
OFSTED inspection. This must be done in acknowledgement that any
initiative which falls outside of the OFSTED framework is unlikely
to be taken seriously by schools;
(ii) Introduce an ESD model into pre-service
training. Sustainable development is a complex issue, and if it
is to be handled correctly by teachers, training is essential;
(iii) Designate ESD as a priority area for
in-service training. This must include the provision of cover
for teachers attending ESD training. The statutory agencies and
NGO sector are well placed to deliver this training;
(iv) Encourage and reward educational institutions
for making sustainable development a key part of their institutional
ethos. The RSPB is aware of schools where the teaching of ESD
is of high quality, but much of this good work is undone by the
school not taking sustainable development issues seriously in
its own performance in areas such as transport or energy use.
(v) Acknowledge the importance of ESD in
schools by encouraging and funding the establishment of a sustainable
development coordinator with a management point in all schools.
4.3 The RSPB believes that the role of out
of classroom learning in ESD is so important that it warrants
specific mention. The commitment to sustainable development amongst
the population, which the Government is seeking, is a combination
in the individual of an objective commitment (intellectually
I understand the reasons for sustainable development) and
subjective commitment (I care about these issues). It is
universally acknowledged that the best technique for developing
commitment is personal experience. In the school sector, this
personal experience is most effectively delivered through out
of classroom experiences. Unfortunately, this area has real problems
that have led to a decline in schools making educational visits
to RSPB reserves, a trend which is mirrored for other environmental
NGOs with similar facilities. These problems include:
(i) An increasingly defensive attitude by
schools due to fear of litigation if an accident should occur
on an educational visit;
(ii) An over-crowded curriculum that has
little leeway for educational visits;
(iii) An education system that appears to
value testing and standards to the exclusion of all else;
(iv) Inequality of opportunity — the
RSPB research shows a much higher take up of educational visits
in the prosperous South East compared with many schools in poorer
areas, claiming lack of finance as a primary reason for very limited
take-up.
4.4 The value of out of classroom learning
goes beyond ESD and includes the social and cultural development
of a child. In order to demonstrate the value of firsthand experience,
we believe that the Government needs:
(i) To give clear and unambiguous messages
to schools that the National Curriculum cannot be delivered in
its entirety within the classroom;
(ii) To provide real support for providers
of out of classroom learning. In many cases, Local (iii) Management
Of Schools has led to a decline in LEA subsidised provision with
the consequence that full market rates make visits too expensive
for many schools;
(iv) To provide a safety net of financial
support to ensure that schools are not excluded from out of classroom
learning because of the poverty of the school and its catchment.
4.5 Ultimately, the RSPB believes that universal
access to out of classroom learning can only come through a statutory
entitlement for children to participate in educational visits.
5. FURTHER AND
HIGHER EDUCATION
5.1 In Further and Higher Education, the
situation is much worse than in schools. The Government has failed
to implement the recommendations of the Toyne report and this
failure is much lamented by all involved in both versions of that
report. The Toyne report provided a framework for Sustainable
Development to be promoted both in Further and Higher Education
institutions as well as through their curricula. The RSPB urges
the Government to revisit the Toyne Report, to update and implement
its recommendations. We are concerned that future decision makers
coming through the Further and Higher Education sectors will have
little or no exposure to sustainable development, either in principle
or practice.
6. ROLE OF
THE DEPARTMENT
FOR EDUCATION
AND SKILLS
6.1 Every NGO involved in Sustainable Development
has stories of their frustration in dealing with DfES. We do not
believe that there is a conspiracy against ESD in DfES but rather
that its structure and organisation are currently unable to prioritise
ESD. Within DfES responsibility for ESD in the national curriculum
is the responsibility of a part-time member of staff who also
has responsibility for Geography and Modern Languages. In day-to-day
matters of ESD most of the impetus from within government emanates
from Defra rather than DfES. The funding by DfES of the Qualifications
and Curriculum Authority hosted ESD website is to be applauded,
but we believe there are substantial improvements DfES could implement
to improve ESD:
(i) The promotion and provision of ESD must
become the responsibility of a senior civil servant within DfES.
We are not criticising the current holder of the ESD responsibility,
but acknowledge that they are overstretched and under-resourced,
and perhaps not as central to the department's decision-making
as they should be;
(ii) Currently DfES seems attracted to simplistic
solutions, favouring "quick fix" initiatives that will
solve problems quickly and with little regard to the long term.
The RSPB very strongly recommends that DfES does not adopt the
"one-size fits all" solution, but instead endorses quality
ESD initiatives from a variety of sources. We believe that the
Scottish model of promoting the Eco-Schools programme to all schools
should not be replicated in England. We value the content of Eco-Schools
but Government support for one initiative at the exclusion of
all others we believe to be counter productive.
7. ROLE OF
THE DEPARTMENT
FOR ENVIRONMENT,
FOOD AND
RURAL AFFAIRS
7.1 Defra has traditionally led Government
support for ESD with the NGO sector. Through the Environmental
Action Fund many worthy ESD initiatives have been supported and
most NGOs would praise Defra for its commitment. It is the belief
of the ESD NGO sector that interdepartmental competition between
DfES and Defra has led to confusion. Although ESD is substantially
about the environment, the RSPB believes that its rightful home
is with DfES. We believe that the Environmental Action Fund should
operate under the umbrella of the national strategy for ESD and
that its ESD components should be managed by DfES.
8. THE ROLE
OF THE
GOVERNMENT PANEL
FOR ESD
8.1 The future of the Government Panel for
ESD is currently under review, the RSPB believes that important
lessons can be learned from the Panel's performance that should
lead to better organisation and provision for ESD:
(i) The Panel's direct reporting to the Secretary
of State for Education and Skills gave a clear message that the
Government takes ESD seriously. Irrespective of the future of
the Panel, it is vital that overall responsibility for ESD is
given to a Minister at Cabinet level;
(ii). One of the Panel's failings was lack
of budget. It was unable to fund much of its own work (and was
sometimes financially supported by its members, including the
RSPB);
(iii) The Panel ultimately became rather
introspective and poor at communication (for example at one stage
recently its published minutes were up to eighteen months out
of date). The Panel appeared to become very important to its members
but almost irrelevant to the broader ESD movement.
8.2 The RSPB believes that the lessons from
the ESD Panel can be incorporated into a national strategy for
ESD as outlined in Section 3.
9. CONCLUSION
9.1 The RSPB is totally committed to Education
for Sustainable Development. We recognise and applaud the positive
moves made by Government. We believe that our recommendations
would make the promotion of ESD more efficient and effective.
February 2003
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