UN sets Decade of Education for Sustainable Development

The UN general assembly passed re-cently a resolution establishing a UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Deve-lopment (DESD) to commence on Jan. 1, 2005 and conclude in 2014. The resolution assigned the promo-tion of DESD under the auspices of the United Nations Edu-cational, Scientific and Cultural Organi-zation (UNESCO).

The decade gene-rally aims to promote education as the basis for sustainable hu-man society and strengthen international cooperation toward the development of innovative policies, programs and practices of education for sustainable development (ESD).

The aim is to pursue education to foster the transition to a sustainable society. As a process, education for sustainable development is used to create awareness of sustainable develop-ment issues; enhance knowledge and under-standing skills; influence values and attitudes; encourage more responsible behavior; and promote learning that leads to action.

In Dr. Guzman’s paper on "Moving the Teriary Education Sector for the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development: Taking up the Challenges", she identified some key challenges revolving around global and national imperatives based on guidance documents. A mechanism that is devised to connect academe to business and industry was also identified as a challenge. This challenge is slowly being taken up by the PATLEPAM.

Recommendations from the tertiary education sector gave importance to institutionalization of the integration of EE in CHED and DepEd with stronger networking, collaboration and partnerships among agencies and organizations.