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Promoting education for
sustainable development in China
Shi Gendong, Executive Director, and Wang Qiaoling, Academic Secretary,
National Working Committee for the UNESCO Project on ESD in China
A
s all governments around the world attach great impor-
tance to sustainable development, education, which is a
driving force to promote sustainable development, has
become the subject of common understanding in the interna-
tional community. This understanding is fully expounded in
the International Implementation Scheme of the UN Decade of
Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), which recom-
mends that education for sustainable development (ESD) be an
important vision guiding educational reform and development
across the world.
While implementing a strategy of sustainable development from the
viewpoint of scientific development, China has since 1998 made
remarkable achievements in ESD research and practical exploration
by carrying out ESD activities in Beijing and some other munici-
palities, provinces and autonomous regions of China. All these
activities were organized and instructed by the Beijing Academy of
Educational Science under the leadership of the UNESCO China
National Working Committee and the Ministry of Education.
In order to sum up successful experiences of ESD, the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State
Council have recently co-issued the National Long- and Mid-term
Educational Reform and Development Program (2010-2020), which
clearly defines the importance of ESD and makes it a
thematic strategy for China’s long-term educational
reform and development.
Theoretical research is the driving force
to promote ESD
The first creative characteristic of ESD in China is that
it is regarded as a driving force to guide educational
science research to deepen the practice of ESD in China.
Defining the theoretical implications of ESD
To help Chinese educational workers to better under-
stand ESD and guide their work, the research workers
of the China National ESD Working Committee have
arrived at a basic definition of ESD after many years of
experimental work: “ESD is a kind of education intro-
duced to meet the needs of sustainable development
with cultivation of a value of sustainable development as
the core”. It aims to help those being educated to mould
values by learning scientific knowledge, to strengthen
learning capacity and to create a lifestyle, which meets
the needs of sustainable development. On this basis, it
further promotes sustainable development of society,
economy, environment and culture. According to this
definition, the concept of sustainable development
education should be defined in the following four ways:
• Sustainable development education is a product of
the times
• The core of ESD is the value placed on education
• Sustainable development education should focus on
enhancing the overall values of students, scientific
knowledge, learning ability and lifestyle
• The social function of ESD is to promote social,
economic, environmental and cultural sustainable
development.
Elaborating theoretical relations between education and
sustainable development
Research workers on ESD projects have elaborated the
theoretical relationship between education and sustain-
able development in China, namely, education occupies
a strategic position of top priority in sustainable devel-
opment, ESD itself is an important part of sustainable
development, and ESD is the ‘mission of the age’ during
the 21st century.
Chinese delegates attend a world conference on ESD in Bonn
Image: Nat. Comm. UNESCO China