APPENDIX 37
Memorandum submitted from The Royal Society
for the Protection of Birds
THE RSPB AND
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
1. For over one hundred years, the RSPB
has made a substantial contribution to environmental education.
As a membership body, with over one million members, including
150,000 under 18 years, we believe that the key to ensuring the
conservation of habitats, species and the wider environment lies
with public awareness and education. Ultimately, the future of
sustainable development is dependent on individuals understanding
its principles and committing to the lifestyle changes necessary
to its success.
2. As an on going commitment to education,
the RSPB spends around £5 million per year on its public
awareness and education functions. In addition to broad based
public awareness functions we,
— Support the curricula of all four
UK countries with the production and dissemination of teacher
led resources and school activities.
— Offer structured educational programmes
to visiting parties on 35 of our reserves.
— Produce e-learning courses on birds
and conservation as part of life-long learning.
— Export our educational expertise
to 13 countries working within the BirdLife International partnership.
— Work within the policy advocacy arena
promoting environmental education.
EDUCATION FOR
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
3. Following the Rio Earth Summit in 1992,
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) became a high profile
issue. There was a real sense of a shared global agenda and a
commitment to its promotion. Twelve years on, few organisations
would claim that sustainable development has permeated the consciousness
of all but a small proportion of the population. Much of this
lack of success can be laid at the door of confusing terminology.
There does not appear to be a single cross governmental definition
of sustainable development and there remains much ambiguity. For
instance, within the Regional Development Agency network, sustainable
development appears to principally mean "economic sustainable
development" and it appears that Government has downplayed
the environmental dimension. Amongst young people, there has been
a decline in environmental concern as measured by opinion pollsters,
which, leads to the inevitable conclusion that, sustainable development
and the environmental messages within it are not permeating the
public consciousness.
THE DFES
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
ACTION PLAN
AND ITS
SUCCESS
4. The RSPB welcomed the DfES Sustainable
Development Action Plan as a major contribution to the promotion
of sustainable development. However, we have consistently been
critical of its lack of measurable objectives.
5. The Action plan has led to much activity
and the RSPB commends the Government for work around Objective
2—the environmental impact of the Department and its partner
bodies, and Objective 3—the environmental impact of the
Education state. The BREEAM initiative is praiseworthy as are
the strategic developments by the Learning and Skills Council
and the Higher Education Funding Council. Through its work in
the Professional Practice for Sustainable Development partnership,
the RSPB has identified an increase in interest about sustainable
development from the professional estate management sector. We
believe that there is still substantial training work necessary
to equip professional practioners to understand and implement
the Action Plans intentions.
6. The RSPB is rather more critical of the
implementation of Objective 1—Education for Sustainable
Development. Actions such as the development of the Growing Schools
network, the new framework for schools and the QCA website on
ESD are all praiseworthy but appear rather fragmented. Little
progress appears to have been made with promoting sustainable
development with some of the key agencies such as OFSTED, The
Teacher Training Agency and the National College for School Leadership.
The RSPB believes that these agencies are critical to the delivery
of the Action Plan.
THE UK SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
AND THE
ROLE OF
LEARNING
7. The RSPB believes that learning is the
key to public engagement and that the forthcoming strategy should
include a specific section on the contribution of formal and informal
education. In order to be credible this section must include targets
and indicators. We believe there is a need for new indicators
for learning and hope that the Education and Skills Secretary's
statement to that effect will be implemented.
THE 14-19 WORKING
GROUP AND
ESD
8. The 14-19 report represented a real opportunity
to integrate education for sustainable development into the heart
of the Government strategy. The RSPB is particularly disappointed
that no consideration of ESD appeared in the report and the significance
of sustainable development has been substantially ignored. If
the Government is to live up to its commitment to sustainable
development it is difficult to understand why such an opportunity
was missed. The RSPB hopes that this situation is repairable and
that sustainable development can become one of the underlying
principles of both the curriculum and qualifications for the 14-19
age range. Without this integration it is difficult to see how
future citizens will be either equipped or committed to address
the challenges of sustainable development.
ESD AND THE
SCHOOL CURRICULUM
9. The 2000 National Curriculum is absolutely
clear on the subject of education for sustainable development
"it should develop their 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".
10. It is true that sustainable development
is explicitly mentioned in seven curriculum subjects. However,
the RSPB is highly critical of the current situation in schools.
11. We believe that sustainable development
is much more than the transfer of information. It is as much about
emotional commitment as it is about intellectual understanding.
Only an integrated framework which builds on curriculum content
and includes the hidden curriculum ie how a school conducts its
business as an institution and the teaching and learning culture
of the school will generate the level of commitment which the
curriculum identifies.
12. DfES has embarked on specific and worthy
initiatives such as Growing Schools but has failed to address
the fundamental lack of status of ESD in schools. In comparison
with initiatives such as literacy, numeracy, citizenship and health
there is a lamentable lack of commitment. It is unreasonable to
expect teachers to knit together ESD in seven subjects to form
a coherent whole. If DfES is to take ESD seriously, it must give
a clear commitment to support the concept at all levels. This
support must include teacher's professional development, head
teachers training and the raising of governor awareness.
13. We are aware of the new WWF-UK framework
being adopted by DfES but believe that it will not be given sufficient
backing as evidenced by the pilot only be implemented in 10 schools.
The RSPB believes that the subject of ESD in schools has been
tackled from the wrong angle. Rather than fragmented initiatives,
the Department should have assessed and identified the key components
to effective delivery in schools and built their actions around
that framework. Our fear is that current practice is like expecting
a dot-to-dot picture to yield a Rembrandt portrait.
14. The RSPB wishes to draw to the attention
of the Committee the subject of out of classroom learning and
its contribution to the effective delivery of education for sustainable
development. We believe that firsthand experience is the most
effective form of generating commitment to the environment and
are disappointed that the DfES Action Plan contains no references
to the importance of firsthand experience. The recent critical
report by OFSTED on the teaching of geography, which is currently
the only national curriculum subject which demands out of classroom
learning, shows how poor the provision is. Through its partnership
in the Real World Learning Campaign the RSPB has demonstrated
its commitment to this vital area and we hope that both the Education
Select Committee and the Environmental Audit Committee will endorse
the objectives of the Campaign.
THE ROLE
OF INFORMAL
LEARNING INCLUDING
YOUTH WORK
15. The RSPB have seen no great rise in
environmental action or awareness among national voluntary youth
organisations (NVYOs) and certainly none that can be attributed
to DfES activity—this is obviously a very general statement
as there are, and always have been, are pockets of excellent environmental
work within the Youth Service.
16. The lead in this area continues to be
given by youth programmes of environmental charities such as RSPB's
Wildlife Explorers with nearly 150,000 members under 18 years.
The RSPB's Wildlife Explorers have a separately branded teenage
section whose activities and publications are largely directed
by a elected forum of young people. At their annual conference
they debate local and national issues which relate to the environment
and sustainable development. With RSPB facilitation they have
been able to communicate their concerns and ideas to appropriate
decision makers, including MPs. We believe this to be an example
of best practice.
17. Opportunities for influencing the activities
of after-school clubs have not been taken, yet these, relatively
new, organisations have time beyond the classroom for informal
learning about ESD.
18. Grants can be used to focus the attention
of NVYO's on changing and emerging priorities. Again ESD, did
not feature in the qualifying criteria in the latest round of
DfES grant applications.
19. Departments that work with young people
can help them to direct their time and interests in a positive
way through grants towards `green' travel, educational credits
in records of achievement or providing a recognised certification
schemes.
20. Training of youth workers does not appear
to be recognising ESD as relevant topic nor giving a new direction
for practical youth work in the natural environment.
21. Finally, the DfES does not appear to
be working closely with the Russell Commission on Youth and Volunteering.
This is a great opportunity to influence the attitudes of the
next generation on issues relating to the environment and citizenship
through practical work.
THE ENVIRONMENTAL
MESSAGE AND
THE GENERAL
PUBLIC
22. The RSPB is not aware of any significant
initiatives by DfES to promote environmental messages to the general
public. Our perception is that DEFRA have been more active through
initiatives such as `are you doing your bit?' but that the evaluation
of such initiatives has proved inconclusive.
23. The RSPB is disappointed that the Government
has failed to come up with multi-departmental initiatives to support
Education for Sustainable Development. Good examples of how it
can be done include co-operation between the Department of Health
and DfES on food in schools and child obesity. These partnerships
are broadened to include networks, professionals, and NGO's and
are backed with sufficient resources to support local implementation,
professional development and guidance materials for schools and
families. We would like to see such initiatives on sustainable
development.
RESOURCES FOR
ESD
24. The question of resourcing is inextricably
linked with what you set out to achieve. The kind of integrated
framework which is likely to lead to real commitment by young
people to sustainable development is expensive. However, the current
low level of funding appears to indicate that Education for Sustainable
Development is a low priority area for the Government.
25. The RSPB believes that the NGO sector
is currently carrying most of the expenditure involved with the
promotion of Education for Sustainable Development. DfES is involved
in funding its own projects but there is currently no funding
stream to develop new initiatives. The Environmental Action Fund
seems to be moving away from education into areas such as sustainable
consumption and this will lead to a reduction in Education for
Sustainable Development and environmental education initiatives.
We believe that the ideal solution would be a recurring fund as
part of a Government framework where DfES and Non-Government Organisation
Practioners and Deliverers are involved in allocating grant money
to organisations in pursuit of agreed and shared objectives.
November 2004
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