Sustainability

There’s a difference between education about sustainable development and education for sustainable development. Both are important – the former helps develop specialists in sustainability, but we also need the latter, ensuring that all learners have the knowledge, skills, values and attributes to create a more just and sustainable world.

This is not to say that all learners should have an expert knowledge of all the areas of sustainable development, but instead that learners have sustainable development knowledge, skills, values and attributes as a core competency and they understand how their subject area interrelates with sustainable development and can contribute to its realisation and have the values and agency required to act upon that knowledge.

What is Education for Sustainable Development?

UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), are one of the majorenablers of ESD globally. They define ESD as:

"empowering learners to take informed decisions and responsible actions for environmental integrity, economic viability and a just society, for present and future generations, while respecting cultural diversity. It is about lifelong learning, and is an integral part of quality education."

Oppimista equips students with new knowledge but also new ways of thinking – the onus being on the need to promote learning skills that are resilient to change and are future-proofed. Our vision is for all families and staff to meet society’s sustainability needs through education and for all students to become sustainable learners. We do this through our continued collaboration with organisations such as the ET Foundation and UNESCO as well as hosting meaningful ustainability-related initiatives across our schools.