Report on Education for Sustainable Development
On April 27th, 2021, the federal government announced the BMBF report on “Education for Sustainable Development” (BNE) for the 19th legislative period submitted. It deals with the status and development of ESD in Germany from 2017 to 2021 and depicts the ESD activities of the federal government, the federal states and state conferences as well as the municipalities. Would be listed – so that parliamentary press service today in the bundestag – also the ESD activities of other social actors in the field of sustainable development. The contribution ESD has made to achieving the 17 sustainability goals from the United Nations’ (UN) 2030 Agenda is also shown.
Agenda 2030, the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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According to the 198-page (!) Submission, society has to deal with increasing global challenges such as inequalities, climate change, scarcity of resources and pandemics. One answer to this would be in 2015 17 sustainability goals the United Nations. Because a sustainable society is “more open, more resilient and fair”. This idea is at the center of the German Sustainability Strategy and its new editions, as well as the Federal Government’s Climate Protection Program 2030.
“Our society can only be sustainable if we work together,” the report continues. To do this, you need an education that is geared towards sustainable development. Education for sustainable development pursues the goal of “enabling people to think and act in a sustainable way”. It enables a critical, but nevertheless empathetic and comprehensive view. The Federal Government is convinced that ESD enables every individual and of every age to understand the effects of their own actions on the world and to make responsible decisions.
According to the report, the Federal Government’s measures in the ESD area were significantly expanded in the 19th legislative period. In recent years, among other things, ESD state strategies have been adopted or further developed, new guiding perspectives for curricula have been developed and teaching materials for ESD have been published. In 2020, with the help of funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the way was paved for an ESD competence center to support the municipalities in anchoring ESD in their educational structures. hib / ROL
Literally at the end of the report it says: “ESD is getting more and more into the structures of the various educational areas, and that at all levels. In recent years, among other things, ESD national strategies have been adopted or further developed, ESD has been anchored in the guiding principles of educational institutions, new guidelines for curricula have been developed and teaching materials for ESD have been published. In 2020, with the help of BMBF funding, the way was paved for an ESD competence center to support the municipalities in anchoring ESD in their educational structures. the federal government looks forward to it with great interest. The new international UNESCO program “Education for Sustainable Development: Towards Achieving the SDGs (ESD for 2030)” now focuses more on the 17 SDGs. The Federal Government expressly welcomes this orientation and will also promote this in the national process, because ESD is a central key to achieving all SDGs.
When implementing ESD, for example, those involved in the education sector will have to pay more attention to empowering teachers to apply ESD in educational practice. The further training of educators and day-care center managers should be further strengthened. Measures to support multipliers are also to be implemented in vocational training and higher education.
In order to improve the implementation even further, the various topics that are currently being implemented at different points in the education system must be considered even more in the future. “
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