Date and Time:
31 August 2021, 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM (GMT+13/Tonga Time)
Organizers: UNESCO Office for the Pacific States, Tonga Ministry of Education and Training and University of South Pacific, Institute of Education
Event Type: Regional Workshop
Where: Zoom
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has been identified as an important approach to increase resilience in education as well as society in the Pacific. As part of a regional programme to promote ESD, UNESCO in collaboration with governments, regional institutions and other partners have been supporting development of ESD teaching and learning materials across all education levels from ECCE to post-secondary.
This work, supported by the global UNESCO ESD Japanese Funds in Trust (JFIT), emphasizes to promote South-South collaboration and learning. The fund enabled three projects in the Pacific communities in ESD teaching and learning resource development, aiming to benefit all three sub-regions Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia. It involved review of the curriculum to seek interlinkage with ESD and other learning contents, consultation with teachers, education administrators, and subject area specialists on their needs and contents of the resources, and culturally appropriate learning resource development.
Between 2020-2021, the following work was completed to date:
- ESD learning materials for students, teachers, teacher educators, parents and other stakeholders in ECCE, Primary, Secondary and Tertiary education developed by USP IOE in consultation with 7 countries – Nauru, Niue, Tonga, Tuvalu, Fiji, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands;
- Resources to help develop non-cognitive skills and ESD in early childhood education developed by RMI;
- Teaching and learning resources for Years 7/8 that support sustainable development in the context of the Pacific developed by Samoa (draft).
JFIT continues to enable this work to ensure that all 15 PSIDS Member States benefit from the resources developed and learn from each other. The workshop will discuss the experience in integrating ESD in education curriculum, how countries can adapt teaching and learning resources, some examples on how to incorporate ESD in teacher training, considerations on policy, capacity building, engagement with youth, and local level actions, as suggested in the ESD2030 Roadmap, identifying opportunities and gaps and next steps. In this context, the Tonga Ministry of Education and Training and UNESCO, in collaboration with the University of the South Pacific Institute of Education will co-host the ESD Pacific Regional Workshop on 31 August, 2021.
Objectives
The workshop aims to achieve the following objectives:
- Disseminate the ESD materials developed among the education policy makers, administrators, and teacher trainers to discuss and plan the usage of materials among the 15 Pacific SIDS;
- Discuss lessons learned in curriculum review, materials development and teacher training on ESD;
- Review ESD2030 Roadmap and different dimensions to promote ESD in countries;
- Identify opportunities and challenges in ESD and potential areas for Pacific regional collaboration.
Expected Outcome and Outputs
The key outcome of the workshop will be sharing of resources, experience, and knowledge on ESD in the Pacific and potential areas for collaboration.
The key outputs will be:
- Building understanding on the purpose and possibility of adaptation/translation of the ESD resources developed;
- Sharing lessons learned from curriculum review, ESD teaching and learning materials development, and teacher training in the region;
- Reviewing ESD2030 Roadmap components and some examples from other regions;
- Discussion on next steps and potential areas for Pacific regional collaboration.
Expected participants
- It is expected that participation from 15 Pacific SIDS will consist of:
- Ministry of Education officials – policy, administration, ESD focal points, curriculum and teacher training;
- Teacher trainers and Teacher training institution representatives;
- Implementing and development partners;
- Country Advisors – focal points.
Agenda
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Meeting Documents
