Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) allows humans to get science, skills, behaviour, and values that are needed to build a sustainable future. Hence, ESD development concept is important to be included in the teaching and learning regarding climate change, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity, poverty alleviation, and sustainable consumption through participative teaching and learning method.
These emerged in International ESD Forum that ran at UGM on Tuesday (14/11).
Director of Community Service UGM, Prof. Ir. Priyambada, M.Sc., Ph.D., said the ESD concept promotes competence such as critical thinking, imagining future scenario, and making collaborative decision. ESD can motivate and empower students to change their behaviours and take action for sustainable development.
According to Irfan, at UGM many students have participated among society in activities of their responsibilities. “Through ESD we implement university duties in education, research, and community service,” he said.
Prof. Lucia Yamamoto from Shizuoka University, Japan, said community service was a project done together between Shizuoka and UGM.
In her opinion, the challenge in ESD is how to harmonise local issues with global issues on sustainable development. Student Community Service programme, she said, would expand their knowledge and awareness regarding real problems, especially related to poverty. “The students can learn the life of impoverished people and they can do research into it,” she said.
Forestry professor from UGM, Prof. Dr. Cahyono Agus, said ESD ought to be taught early in order that natural resources in the future can be managed wisely. He lamented that natural resources like petroleum and forest had been ruthlessly used up in just one generation. “Indeed, we have natural resources, but these have been used up in just one generation,” he said.