Education for Sustainable Development
October 2004
Banner photo: © SEKAI BUNKA PHOTO
ESD or the Commercial Imperative?
How has higher education implemented the concept of ESD? Jamil Salmi, deputy director for education at the World Bank, notes that tertiary education plays a key role in supporting basic and secondary education. The increasing commercialization of universities, however, seems to go against ESD principles as they were voiced in the Thessaloniki conference. We should also be concerned about the emergence of "diploma mills," that is, commercially motivated universities that can exploit students in low-income countries.
Although international educational associations agree that education is not a "commodity" and should "serve the public interest" with a mission to contribute to sustainable development, it is acknowledged that higher education is increasingly being treated as a commercial product, governed essentially by market forces. Clearly, a discrepancy exists between future planning in tertiary education and the declarations of governments in international conferences such as Dakar, in which governments were called to reaffirm their commitment to an educational system that will alleviate poverty and promote peace and cultural diversity.
The ethical responsibility of education is amply articulated by those such as John Fien of Griffith University in Brisbane who call for a total reform of the curriculum and pedagogy, which would emphasize "moral virtues, ethical discernment, learning how to learn, reflection, creativity, civic mindedness, and the motivation and abilities to work with others to help build a sustainable future"
What is ironic, however, is that rather than ethical discernment, creativity and values, universities continue to invest hundreds of millions of euros annually in research on "sustainable development" which does nothing to address the true negative, insufficient, and deceptive impact of actual development. Higher education, says Riccardo Petrella, science and technology policy consultant to the European Commission, is now capitalizing on a "value-free" discourse that is being promoted by social and applied sciences, a "denuded, aseptic" theoretical approach based on quantification and modeling such as the one taught in MBA programs.
Such approaches, however, not only reduce ethical problems and suffering into a clinical, alienating discourse, but they further legitimize the absence of ethical questions in research undertaken by universities, promoting negativity and cynicism on the part of students.
What is required to change this situation? Universities must lay out an educational plan that will encourage students and faculty from different fields to explore their specializations within the goals and challenges of ESD. Moreover, academics should become aware that ESD is more than a model for educational reform; it calls for an awareness of the imperative to sustain life and is a commitment to life itself.
Anastasia Nikolopoulou is associate professor in the Department of English Studies at the University of Cyprus. She is coordinating the conference "The Challenge to Globalization: Education for Tolerance, Democracy and Sustainable Development," to be held at the Nehru Museum and Memorial Library in New Delhi, from January 20-22, 2005. nicocy@cytanet.com.cy
