Class Group: General (Semester)

Course Code: BHUM107L

Slot:C2+TC2
Faculty: Dr. Sreya Sen, SSL

SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIETY

MODULE 2: EDUCATION (PART – 1)
Dr. Sreya Sen
Assistant Professor
School of Social Sciences and Languages
Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT),
Tamil Nadu – 632014
Email: sreya.sen@vit.ac.in

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 Class Group: General (Semester)
Course Code: BHUM107L
Slot:C2+TC2
Faculty: Dr. Sreya Sen, SSL
Role and Importance of Education in
Sustainable Development
• Education is seen as a big force; a force that not only contributes to national
development, but also sustainable development.
• It is a key to development, be it social, economic, political or environmental.
• Education promotes development of knowledge and skills required to
achieve sustainable development (SD).
• It encourages promotion of economic well-being, social equity, democratic
values and much more.

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 Class Group: General (Semester)
Course Code: BHUM107L
Slot:C2+TC2
Faculty: Dr. Sreya Sen, SSL

SDG Goal Number 4: Quality Education

• Providing quality education for all is fundamental to creating a peaceful and prosperous
world. Education gives people the knowledge and skills they need to stay healthy, get jobs
and foster tolerance.
• The COVID-19 outbreak, however, has caused a global education crisis. Most education
systems in the world have been severely affected by education disruptions and have faced
unprecedented challenges. School closures brought on by the pandemic have had
devastating consequences for children’s learning and well-being.
• It is estimated that 147 million children missed more than half of their in-class instruction
over the past two years. This generation of children could lose a combined total of $17
trillion in lifetime earnings in present value.
• School closures have affected girls, children from disadvantaged backgrounds, those living
in rural areas, children with disabilities and children from ethnic minorities more than their
peers.

Source: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education/ 3
 Class Group: General (Semester)
Course Code: BHUM107L
Slot:C2+TC2
Faculty: Dr. Sreya Sen, SSL

Facts and Figures

• Progress towards quality education was already slower than required before the
pandemic, but COVID-19 has had devastating impacts on education, causing learning
losses in four out of five of the 104 countries studied.
• Without additional measures, only one in six countries will achieve the universal secondary
school completion target by 2030, an estimated 84 million children and young people will
still be out of school, and approximately 300 million students will lack the basic numeracy
and literacy skills necessary for success in life.
• To achieve national Goal 4 benchmarks, which are reduced in ambition compared with the
original Goal 4 targets, 79 low- and lower-middle- income countries still face an average
annual financing gap of $97 billion.
• To deliver on Goal 4, education financing must become a national investment priority.
Furthermore, measures such as making education free and compulsory, increasing the
number of teachers, improving basic school infrastructure and embracing digital
transformation are essential.

Source: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education/ 4
 Class Group: General (Semester)
Course Code: BHUM107L
Slot:C2+TC2
Faculty: Dr. Sreya Sen, SSL

Source: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education/ 5
 Class Group: General (Semester)
Course Code: BHUM107L
Slot:C2+TC2
Faculty: Dr. Sreya Sen, SSL
SDG Goal Number 4: Quality Education

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 Class Group: General (Semester)
Course Code: BHUM107L
Slot:C2+TC2
Education for Sustainable Development Faculty: Dr. Sreya Sen, SSL

• ‘the ESD is the process of equipping students with the knowledge, skills and attributes
needed to work and live in a way that safeguards environmental, social and economic well-
being, both in the present and for future generations’
• The key ESD issues relate to
 Climate change
 Disaster risk reduction
 Biodiversity
 Poverty reduction and
 Sustainable consumption

• Education for SD consequently promotes competencies like critical thinking, imagining

future scenarios and collaborative decision making.
• The ESD would be meaningful when it is linked with issues that the world is facing today.
• It must be given a global outlook.

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 Class Group: General (Semester)
Course Code: BHUM107L
Slot:C2+TC2
• Promotion and improvement of basic education related to SD; Faculty: Dr. Sreya Sen, SSL

• Reorientation of existing education at all levels primary (basic), secondary,

higher in order to address SD.
• Development of public awareness and understanding of sustainability.
• Learning and development of training methods in the world of sustainable
development.
• UNESCO has been the lead United Nations agency on Education for Sustainable
Development (ESD) since the United Nations Decade of Education (2005-2014).
• ESD is widely recognized as an integral element of Agenda 2030, in particular
Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), and a key enabler of all the other
SDGs.

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 Class Group: General (Semester)
Course Code: BHUM107L
Slot:C2+TC2

ESD for 2030 Faculty: Dr. Sreya Sen, SSL

• Education for Sustainable Development: Towards achieving the SDGs (ESD for
2030) is the global framework for implementation of ESD from 2020-2030.
Goal
• ESD for 2030 aims to build a more just and sustainable world through strengthening
ESD and contributing to the achievement of the 17 SDGs.

Objective
• To fully integrate ESD and the 17 SDGs into policies, learning environments, capacity-
building of educators, the empowerment and mobilization of young people, and local
level action.

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 Class Group: General (Semester)
Course Code: BHUM107L
Slot:C2+TC2

How can ESD enable the achievement of Faculty: Dr. Sreya Sen, SSL

the 17 SDGs?
• ESD raises the awareness of the 17 goals in education settings
• ESD promotes critical and contextualized understanding of the SDGs
• ESD mobilizes action towards the achievement of the SDGs

Summary:
Under its global framework on Education for Sustainable Development ‘ESD for
2030’ and through the Greening Education Partnership launched at the UN
Transforming Education Summit, UNESCO aims to get every learner climate-ready
by supporting Member States’ efforts to integrate climate change education
holistically in education policy and practice.
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