{"id":5095,"date":"2013-11-27T09:24:13","date_gmt":"2013-11-27T09:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=5095"},"modified":"2013-11-27T09:24:13","modified_gmt":"2013-11-27T09:24:13","slug":"the-manifesto-we-all-want-the-call-to-governments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2013\/11\/27\/the-manifesto-we-all-want-the-call-to-governments\/","title":{"rendered":"The Manifesto we all want \u2013 the call to governments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is the second post focused on the \"<span style=\"color: #000080\">Enabling the future we want: education for sustainable development in the UK \u2013 a manifesto for dialogue, collaboration and action post Rio+20\". <\/span>It looks at who the manifesto is trying to influence.<\/p>\n<p>The document itemises a range of \"supporting mechanisms\" that governments and civil society should put in place to enable and strengthen UK delivery of the educational commitments agreed in <em>The Future We Want<\/em>. \u00a0There are 4 headings:<\/p>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000080\">Governmental responsibilities<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000080\">Formal learning (in education and training sectors)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000080\">Informal learning<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000080\">Emphasise the connection between ESD and the economy<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div>For each of these, the manifesto sets out a number of outcomes that are being called for, and identifies a set of recommended actions. \u00a0Some of these are clear, and do-able; others are just as opaque as the above list suggests they would be. \u00a0The manifesto begins with <em>government. <\/em> It says:<\/div>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080\"><strong>Governmental Responsibilities <\/strong><strong>\u2013<\/strong><strong> <\/strong> the UK government and the devolved governments of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have a responsibility to articulate and support the important role that education plays in achieving poverty eradication\u00a0in the context of sustainable development, and in meeting the United Kingdom\u2019s targets for the reduction of greenhouse gasses. \u00a0We acknowledge that some parts of the UK have made more progress than others in advancing policy for ESD. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080\"><em>The manifesto calls for three outcomes:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000080\"><strong>Outcome 1. <\/strong>Better coordination of efforts and collaboration between governments and across government departments on formal and informal learning for sustainable development<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Here, the recommended actions are ...<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #800080\">The Environmental Audit Committee to regularly put ESD related issues on its agenda and facilitate dialogue<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #800080\">UK government departments (BIS, DEFRA, DECC, DFT, DoE, and DfID) and devolved government agencies to identify how they will support ESD in formal and informal learning settings to meet their own targets for SD<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000080\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;font-weight: bold\">Outcome <\/span>2. <\/strong>Improvement of dialogue between the education sector, civil society and government departments<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Here, the recommended actions are ...<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #800080\">Offer incentives and opportunities for collaboration and partnership building across education sectors, business, and environmental, developmental, educational and faith-based NGOs<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #800080\">Funding to focus on the long term<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #800080\">Ensure youth and student voices play an active role in this dialogue<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000080\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;font-weight: bold\">Outcome <\/span>3. <\/strong>Enabling education sectors to develop an appropriate curriculum to meet current and future sustainability challenges through a realignment of funding with <em>The Future We Want <\/em>in mind<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Here, the recommended actions are ...<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #800080\">Inclusion of ESD in education ministers\u2019 portfolios<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #800080\">Endorsement and support for those <span style=\"color: #800080\">institutions<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #800080\"> and organisations that lead the way with good practice<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026...<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">So; a comment or two ...<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>A picky, if rather fundamental, point to start with: <span style=\"color: #000000\">the <em>Environmental Audit Committee<\/em><\/span> is a body of <em>parliament<\/em>, not of government. \u00a0How constitutionally crass to make that mistake.<\/li>\n<li>It's not at all clear who is to \"offer incentives and opportunities\". \u00a0Is this 'governments'? \u00a0If so, do they know? \u00a0And whose job is it to \"ensure youth and student voices play a role\"? \u00a0Not governments', surely? \u00a0This sounds more like a job for the likes of the NUS. \u00a0These are not so much \"recommended actions\" as a vague wish list of things that someone else really ought to be doing if they are inclined or have a moment. \u00a0As such they will surely have little effect.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">It is also not clear who those \"those\u00a0institutions and organisations\" are who are to receive \"endorsement and support\" (I guess this means tax-payer cash) \u2013 other than those supporting the manifesto. \u00a0This all looks very cosy and self-serving. \u00a0As Bob Geldorf so memorably said, \"********************\".<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">My guess is that there will be a considerable dollop of skepticism in government (and the EAC) as to whether ESD and its supporters can deliver the sustainability goods \u2013 or whether there is enough time for us to wait to see whether they can. \u00a0Government is likely to put its faith (and money) into more direct action. \u00a0After all, they will argue, when there's an inferno raging, your priority isn't funding more fire-safety training. \u00a0Sadly, this is the dilemma at the heart of EE \/ ESD \/ EfS \/ LSD \/ SDE \/ CCE \/ DTE \/ ***, and every other adjectival education ever known to humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the second post focused on the \"Enabling the future we want: education for sustainable development in the UK \u2013 a manifesto for dialogue, collaboration and action post Rio+20\". It looks at who the manifesto is trying to influence....<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-new-publications"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5095\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}