Schools need to evolve own contextual educational plans with proper support system for sustainable education, says Jaipur based educator Dr Lalit Kishore.
With UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) drawing global attention and its 'Goal 4' for developing a system of education that emphasizes quality of education as a fundamental right for every child being the focus of discussion as a tool for sustainable education, Here I reproduce my article “ In focus: Quality of education as key to sustainable development” in MeriNews [1] on March 26, 2016.
“Worldwide, there is a heightened concern for both quality of education and sustainable development. A good majority of nations have accorded 'Right to Education' as a fundamental right and at the international level, a broader intergovernmental agreement has been reached for the '2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development' which includes education both as a stand-alone goal as well as cross-cutting goal with other developmental sectors.
The UN has come out with a document "Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" which contains a set of intergovernmental aspiration goals with 169 target to be achieved between 2015 and 2030.
"There is a need to draw inspiration from the stand-alone on education in sustainable development goals (SDGs) also called 'Goal 4' for developing a system of education that emphasizes quality of education as a fundamental right for every child. We need to see quality in terms of freedom to learn at one's own style of learning resulting in high level of learning outcomes for all learners to become autonomous learner," said Kurukshetra-based educator Nawal Kishore on the phone while reacting to the regional consultations being held in the country to discuss SDG-4.
According to Dr. OP Kulehari of a Jaipur-based CULP- NGO, with Goal-4 of SDGs related to education and its inclusion in the goals on health, growth and employment, sustainable consumption and production, and climate change; quality in education is needed to be seen in terms of inclusion, equity and relevance through contextualization.
UNESCO, as coordinating agency for Goal-4 of SDGs, maintains that the quality of education reflects the importance of both cognitive and non-cognitive skills, such as learning to live together sustainably along with being seen in the perspective of lifelong learning.
However, this has implications for individual schools and teachers to identify the competencies and skills and implement their school-based educational plans, said Jaipur-based retired teacher Prabha Kishore.
I too personally feel that cascading consultations is a system-friendly action which is already under fire. There is a need to implicate the aim of Goal-4 at the individual school level by looking at educational quality as a 'situational fit' and situation varies from school to school and from child to child. Let each school evolve its own contextual educational plan and implement it with rest of the system working as a support system to build quality into education by respecting diversity and backing the school-based reform and innovations, that's my consultative advice to regional consultations on Goal-4 of SDGs being held in Jaipur.”
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