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Issue 20: October 2002

There is a need to integrate a sustainable development focus into the curriculum at every level of education, starting in primary school. So states a Declaration issued at the recent World Summit on Sustainable Development by 11 of the world’s foremost global educational organizations and scientific academies.

The Ubuntu Declaration says greater global emphasis on education is essential to reaching sustainable development goals, and creates a major global alliance to promote science and technology courses and teaching throughout educational systems worldwide.

The Declaration was issued at the Johannesburg Summit by:

• United Nations University;

• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization;

• International Association of Universities;

• Third World Academy of Sciences;

• African Academy of Science;

• Science Council of Asia;

• International Council for Science;

• World Federation of Engineering Organizations;

• Copernicus-Campus;

• Global Higher Education for Sustainability Partnership; and

• University Leaders for a Sustainable Future.

The goals of the effort are:

• Curriculum development;

• North-South networking;

• Strategic educational planning and policy-making; and

• Capacity building in scientific research and learning.

Hans van Ginkel, UNU Rector and President of the International Association of Universities, said additional members will be sought for the alliance of policy makers, educators, professionals and researchers at international academies of science and institutions of higher education.

"Sustainable development is not a one-day tutorial," he emphasized. "Education means much more than simply pre-employment training. Integrating sustainable development into the curriculum at all education levels and sectors is needed to ensure that students from primary to post-secondary are aware of its imperatives and respect its principles and values in their professions and as habits of everyday life."

Walter Erdelen, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, said the alliance also looks to education ministries at the national level to reevaluate and relate school programs to sustainable development, and to ensure the appropriate training and retraining of teachers. 

"This effort helps to respond to the critical necessity to resolve tension between growth and development, on the one hand, and conservation and environmental protection on the other," he added. "Expanding the educational base, and in particular the scientific-technological base, is also essential for reversing the growing inequity among nations."

Also participating in the announcement were Mohamed Hassan, Executive Director, Third World Academy of Sciences; Dato Lee Yee Cheong, President-elect, World Federation of Engineering Organizations; Thomas Rosswall, Executive Director, International Council for Science; and Richard Clugston, President, University Leaders for a Sustainable Future.

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