THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: ACHIEVING GOAL 4 OF THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

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Climate Wednesday Tweetchat poster


I was a guest of International Climate Change Development Initiative (ICCDI) popularly known as Climate Wednesday to discuss ‘The Importance of Education for Sustainable Development: Achieving Goal 4 of the SDGs’ in their tweetchat series called #ClimateWednesday. The tweetchat was done on International Day of Education to raise awareness on the importance of education to Agenda 2030.
Below are the questions and my answers for the interview..



Q1. Tell us about yourself? 
A1. My name is Adesuwa Obasuyi, I have a BSc in Biochemistry and an MSc in Environmental Quality Management. I work as the Operations Manager @sawi_env and I am an Ambassador for @TeachSDGs. I am also a very active volunteer, an SDGs advocate and a youth advocate. I aspire to become someone who is recognized as a key figure in issues that affect the environment and people's lives generally, as a motivator, as a mentor and also as a leader.





Q2. What do you understand by the term ‘Environmental Education’? 
A2. It means educating individuals on exploring and identifying environmental issues to gain deeper understanding so as to make informed and responsible decisions, engage in problem solving and take action to improve the environment.




Q3. What do you understand by the term ‘Sustainable Development’? 
A3. Sustainable Development means development that meets the needs of the present without jeopardising the future or simply put: #SaveTodaySaveTomorrow




Q4. Can you explain the ‘Global Action programme on Education for Sustainable Development’? 
A4. UNESCO’s Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development is a follow-up programme on the Education for Sustainable Development (2005 – 2014), it seeks to generate and scale-up Education for Sustainable Development and accelerate progress towards Sustainable Development.


UNESCO’s Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development is meant to accelerate progress towards Agenda 2030 by integrating sustainable development into education and integrating education into sustainable development. It is all about ensuring that everyone gets the opportunity to acquire the attitude, behaviour, character, knowledge and skills that will enable them have a sustainable future; strengthening education and learning in all agendas, programmes and activities that promote sustainable development.



Q5. What role does education play in building sustainable and resilient societies? 
A5. Quality education is the foundation of sustainable and resilient societies, and a critical tool for creating change. It is estimated that global poverty will drop by 12% if all children in low income countries could read, an educated society is an informed society. Education gives us the skills to understand and respect others, no matter how different from us they are, which I believe is what we need in the world today.




Q6. What advice do you have for the youths on how to promote education for sustainable development? 
A6. My advice is that young people should continuously educate themselves and others, learning is a lifelong process and we shouldn’t stop. We should develop new tools through innovative solutions to advance the cause of education and make it more appealing and more accessible so that the hard-to-reach people can have access. This basically means taking education beyond the 4 walls of school.


Some things we can do as 21st century educators are:
1. Leverage more on technologies that are practical and accessible such as audio, video and social media

2. Abandon the system of separating people into “intelligent”or “dull” based on tests and all of that, our style of education should recognize that anyone can learn anything.

3. Encourage a system of education that promotes collaboration and teamwork instead of focusing on competition to drive and motivate students.

4. Encourage risk-taking & creativity in education if we are to have eager & successful innovators amongst us.


Report on #ClimateWednesday "The Importance of #Education for Sustainable Development: Achieving #Goal4 of the #SDGs" by @adesuwagreen can be found here: https://wakelet.com/wake/3dea0a7e-44ed-4e51-9b8b-38ace5a0b93b.

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