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Policy Brief: Quality Education for Sustainable Development, A priority in achieving sustainability and well-being for all

  • Published on November 24, 2014
This Policy Brief argues that the foremost priority for educational development should now be on enhancing quality, transcending past objectives focused primarily on access and attainment (i.e., Education For All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals). Enhancing Quality Education should become a cornerstone of both the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the post-2014 Global Action Programme on ESD for quality education is essential for further progress across all dimensions of sustainable development. Enhancing Quality Education can be achieved through integration of a holistic perspective on education for sustainable development (ESD) and use of measurable learning targets/outcomes. This Policy Brief presents an ESD Learning Performance Framework (LPF), addressing both learning processes and educational contents, that provides a roadmap for how stronger ESD can promote greater educational quality overall. The effectiveness of Quality Education for Sustainable Development could be significantly enhanced through applying the LPF to:  Support curriculum developers in designing holistic and relevant school curricula that includes transformative educational and teaching approaches;  Strengthen teachers competency for ESD through training on the LPF and its application;  Guide school administrators to develop safe learning environments that serve as models of sustainability and support experiential education;  Encourage education policy makers to consider transformative learning approaches in educational reforms and the integration of ESD into standard educational policy. The LPF therefore can facilitate well-informed educational policy making, curriculum design, course content, teaching pedagogies, and learning environments. The LPF also provides a basis for developing measurable, qualitative learning targets and progressive indicators for assessing global progress on DESD, the Global Action Programme on ESD and the SDGs, as well as monitoring educational performance at national and local levels.

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policy_brief_quality_education_for_sustainable_development_a_priority_in_achieving_sustainability_and_well-being_for_all.pdf
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