Over 100 participants from various Teacher Education and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions across Lesotho, South Africa and Zambia will participate in an intensive training programme on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) from 14 September to 13 November 2020. ESD experts and representatives will also participate and give virtual lectures.
The Environmental Learning Research Centre at Rhodes University (South Africa) will virtually host the training course, which is part of the UNESCO Sustainability Starts with Teachers (SST) programme.
This course is part of UNESCO and partners’ efforts to foster distance education and ensure that learning never stops in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic. It will look into sustainability challenges in Southern Africa and discuss how ESD can address them. The course will also tackle the integration of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the school system, and into Teacher/TVET education curriculum.
It is expected that the course will develop a shared understanding of the context for ESD in the three countries; deepen theoretical and practical knowledge of ESD change processes relevant to teacher and TVET education in Southern African Development Community (SADC); and expand understanding of the importance of transformative learning and assessment processes to support change. Participants are also expected get an appreciation of available ESD resources, tools and good practices; and develop strategies to rollout “change projects” in Teacher Education and TVET institutions.
With funding from SIDA, the UNESCO Sustainability Starts with Teachers programme is responding to the major issues highlighted in the Global Education Monitoring Report (2016), namely, that teacher education needs to be more adequately aligned with the SDGs, and teachers need to be supported to understand and implement Education for Sustainable Development. The aim is to strengthen implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in teacher education institutions for teacher educators from Early Childhood Development, primary, secondary and Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET). Special focus is on Sustainable Development Goal 4, which is oriented towards the achievement of educational quality within a lifelong learning framework. The SST programme is running in 11 countries in Southern Africa over four years.