India 2014

Nektarina Non Profit started an initiative to introduce education for sustainable development in schools’ curriculum in countries of CESEE, Russia and Central Asia. More recently we added India, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji and Dominican Republic to the list of countries we are active in.

Most of these countries are developing strongly, having significant impact to the environment and sustainable development from a global perspective.

One way to communicate value based living with sustainable use of water, energy and food resources is through education. Today’s pupils will be tomorrow’s decision makers, helping them get involved in sustainability issues in a creative manner results in greater 'ownership' of the issues and a willingness to engage in active citizenship now and for the future.

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Who are we?

Nektarina Non Profit is an international non-profit organization dedicated to educating, connecting and inspiring people to care about their communities and their environment. It was founded in 2009 in Zagreb, Croatia, with one broad idea in mind - highlighting issues that affect us all globally, by raising awareness and inspiring action but, most importantly, by educating people on these issues.

Our approach is highly local, and we consider cultural, religious, ethnic and any other diversity when carrying out our campaigns. Our activities target general population, but we tend to give stronger focus to younger demographics. We are active in 30+ countries from Europe, Central Asia, Caribbean and Pacific.

Nektarina Non Profit uses on-the-field events like workshops, conferences, forums, debates, film screenings, indoor and outdoor classes, concerts and fairs to reach its target groups. Peer-to-peer education is one of the most important methods we use in our work. Direct share of practices, case studies, knowledge and experience proved to be the most effective and inspiring way to educate and connect people. With the staff of only six people, Nektarina Non Profit relies a great deal on the network of volunteers and we work closely with official volunteer centres in the countries we are active in.

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1 - The Education for Sustainability initiative: Summary

What is the project about? In short, we try to get Ministries of Education in 30+ countries to change their official curriculum for schools and add a subject that deals with sustainability, sustainable living and sustainable development.

Why do we think that is important? It is becoming more and more self evident that, unless we change our mindsets and adopt sustainability as a way of life, we (both people and the environment) will be facing some serious challenges and issues that might prove to be impossible to overcome. Hence, the time to change our mindsets is now (no, strike that - it was yesterday - but if we work together on this one, we just may catch the last train).

How do we plan to reach our goal? By working closely with schools, local communities, general population, environmental agencies, ministries and governments. We will need your helps and support, comments and critiques, inputs and insights. We will use social networks, blogs, and media to raise awareness about this project, keep you all in the loop on our progress. We are very much aware that it might not be possible to get all countries we will be targeting to agree on this curriculum change, but we shall do our best to get on board as many countries as possible.

Who will benefit from this project? Young generations, primarily, but with them, the societies as a whole. So much of our identities is shaped during our formal education, and while one could argue that the most important things we learn at home (and one would be right), schools are (and should be) a place where children and youth get access to the information, knowledge and practices relevant for their future (professional) development. The sooner we provide them with coherent and transparent information about sustainable living and sustainable development, the better for societies in general, as today's children and youth will grow into tomorrow's decision makers.

How will interested parties and general public be able to track our progress? While we will post monthly reports on our website, daily and weekly updates will be available via social networks. Additionally, we started working on a knowledge sharing platform, that will support this project.

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2 - Background: What is Education for Sustainability?

Sustainability

The notion of 'sustainability' emerged in the 1980s and has now become one of the key concepts for exploring the impact of human activity on the planet. Put at its most simple any human activity is sustainable if it can continue fairly indefinitely without causing harm to either people or planet. Alternatively, any human activity that results in on-going harm to either people or planet is the opposite – unsustainable. It has now become clear that many of our practices today come in the latter category.

It was at the Earth Summit in 1992 that this vital (and contested) concept became enshrined in national and international policy and debate. This occurred because it was then recognized that human activity was increasingly threatening the biosphere – that narrow zone of earth, air, water – on which all life (plants, creatures, humans) depends. It also occurred because it was recognized that issues of development, i.e. global wealth and poverty, were increasingly threatening people's life chances in both poor and rich countries. It is important to highlight that sustainability is about managing finite resources and striving to replace them with renewable ones.

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Education for sustainability

At the Earth Summit it was also recognized that education, at all levels, had a crucial role to play in helping citizens understand and act on issues relating to the welfare of people and planet. The term 'education for sustainable development' (ESD) and 'education for sustainability' (EFS) then began to become part of educational vocabulary. There were, of course, a good number of educators who were already showing an interest in issues of sustainability/unsustainability, particularly amongst those working in environmental education, global education and futures education.

Sustainable schools

Whilst the education for sustainability can be seen as a cross-curricular theme to which all subjects could contribute, it received a significant boost when the focus was widened to the notion of ‘sustainable schools’. At one step this moved issues of sustainability from an optional element in the curriculum to a matter of whole-school policy affecting every aspect of school life.

The educational strategy on Sustainable Schools should encompass the following focus areas: food and drink; energy and water; travel and traffic; purchasing and waste; buildings and grounds; inclusion and participation; local well-being; global citizenship.

Having in mind that today’s pupils and students will be tomorrow’s decision makers, helping them engage with sustainability issues in a critical and creative manner results in greater ‘ownership’ of the issues and a willingness to engage in active citizenship now and for the future.

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3 - The Education for Sustainability project: What are we trying to achieve?

OBJECTIVES

The project Education for Sustainability aims at introducing Sustainable Development (and/or any similar subject, that may have a different name, but focuses on sustainable living, practices and futures) in schools curricula in countries and regions where that is not yet the case. We wish to obtain commitment from national authorities that sustainability/sustainable development will be addressed in all its complexity as a separate discipline, either compulsory or elective, in public pre-university level schools.

TARGET GROUPS AND AREAS

The project globally targets Elementary school level and High school level of education. To this end, we aim to work with Ministries and Departments of Education and other relevant Ministries on a governmental side; schools’ Councils and Boards as partners for implementing the project, monitoring events and support the idea of introducing Education for Sustainability as a separate subject in school curricula. Our actions are also addressing pupils, students, Parents’ Groups and local communities. Moreover we aim to reach the general population.

In geographical terms, the project is global. We work with countries all over the world, advocating at a national level and implementing pilot actions at local level.

APPROACH

We are using several channels towards achieving our objectives:

Initiate a dialogue and facilitate commitment from relevant bodies (Ministries of Education) to introduce Sustainability as a subject in compulsory curriculum

Work with local civil society, experts and scholars to argue the importance of introducing education for sustainable development in schools’ curriculum

Raise awareness about sustainability, sustainable development and sustainable future among general population

Organize a network of schools, local communities, CSOs and other entities to help us spread the word and petition for this (grass root movement). Nektarina Non Profit already has a network of over 10,000 schools.

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Create and maintain a web collaboration platform, that would ensure a transparent tracking of the project’s progress, enable all involved to exchange ideas, knowledge and practices

ANTICIPATED RESULTS

Focused and dedicated community and citizens’ involvement and participation in environmental topics and issue-resolving

Improved access to knowledge on sustainability for pupils, students, but also for their communities and general population

Improved communication on value based living and sustainable use of energy and resources

Improved perspective of the green and circular economy

Improved perspective on social context

Improved networking and knowledge exchange between schools and communities

4 - IMPLEMENTING THE PROJECT

We are working with local experts, agencies of environment, civil society organizations, schools and volunteers on understanding the local circumstances of any given country, and on compiling, presenting and sharing data, research and facts that will help us explain and advocate the purpose of the project – introducing Sustainable Development in schools’ curricula.

Preparatory phase

The preparatory phase for the project started in September 2011 and was completed in May 2012. During this phase an extensive research was done on environmental issues in each country, on its educational system, legislative framework and decision making process. We also used that period to develop a network of partners, local experts, communities and civil society organizations that will work with us on the implementation of the project.

Content phase

The content phase started in May 2012, and was completed in September 2012. During that time we launched project's website and worked on its content, including the project's Wiki. We developed strategies for approaching target groups and prepared material and tools for the purpose.

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Implementation phase

Finally - we have reached the phase where we are entering a constructive dialogue with the Governments and Ministries of Education, working together with them, but also with schools, local communities and international institutions on finding the best way to provide children and youth with an opportunity to learn about sustainable development and sustainable way of life during their formal education. This implementation phase will last until the end of 2015. We started by focusing on European countries, and then moved towards other regions, Central Asia, Pakistan, India, the Pacific region, the Caribbean region and in South East Europe.

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Education for Sustainability project in India

Nektarina has partnered with India based NGO Zest Youth Movement since 2012 to implementing Education for Sustainability project in India. The ZYM is a national youth movement working to empower children and young people to take an active role in society and fight for their right. ZYM educates them on the basis of the values of equality, democracy, peace, cooperation and friendship.

In India, the project has achieved the preparatory and content phases, and is entering the advocating phase in the post-electoral period with the new government. As we consider that encouraging states to introducing education for sustainability in schools’ curricula could be reached by creating awareness about the issue in schools and general population, Nektarina, together with ZYM implemented several actions on the ground. Among our actions are:

Environmental awareness programme and World Environment Day celebration in June 2013. Aiming to contributing to work on sustainability with youth, the event brought together government representatives, people from different social organisations, education institutes, medical foundation and young people. Students from different colleges and schools, elderly people and girls took part in the rally.

“My Green Planet” Schools’ drawing competition in March 2014. Following the main topic “My Green Planet” pupils visually expressed their thoughts, ideas and hopes on how they see the Earth free from pollution, where waste is recycled and where most things run on renewable energies. Over 400 students from three schools in Pune participated in the drawing event where they showed what sustainability means to them and why it is important for all of us.

Summer Activity in April 2014. During the indoor programme for students organised by Sakal Indian media group, Nektarina and ZYM conducted an innovative and interactive session. More than 100 students and parents from Pune took part in the activity, which aimed to present and share ideas about sustainability in a very concrete way. Participants showed a very good interest and responses about the topic.

World Environment Day celebration in June 2014. Nektarina and ZYM celebrated WED by organising a rally through the city of Pune and leading a riverbank cleaning activity. Not simply a celebration, the event aimed to contribute to raise environmental protection awareness among the population with a particular focus on youth and education for sustainability. More than 200 people took part to the rally. Among them, students from different institutions and universities, colleges school children, representatives of civil society organisations, companies and political parties.

Events we are having in India are, among other things, envisaged to give us different types of leverages. First they prove the importance we give to focus on the country itself, considering it specificities, lifestyles and population, rather than just our global initiative.

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Secondly, that we involve local actors and communities to make them part of our initiative and ideas. Finally, that we focus on children and youth – the demographics that will benefit from getting sustainable development on schools’ curricula.

Our plan for the upcoming months in India is to start contacting Ministries and official institutions for implementing the advocating strategy, working with civil society and media, organising activities with children and youth and participating to relevant conferences and summits.

5 – Why is education for sustainability a main challenge for India?

People and the planet Earth have been interconnected throughout all stages of human development. Sadly, most of the time, people focused only on their own development, advancement and well being, treating the nature solely as a resource, and not as a natural partner. As a consequence, today we find ourselves at a point where our planet has been severely damaged. It is becoming clear that if we are to have any chance of preserving this planet for the future generations, we need today, as we find ourselves at a point focus of our time, effort and resources in educating people - children and youth in particular - on sustainable development, sustainable living and sustainable future.

In India, major environmental issues include forest and agricultural degradation of land; depletion of resources such as water, minerals, forest, sand, and rocks; environmental degradation, air pollution, water pollution, waste management; public health issues; loss of biodiversity; loss of resilience in ecosystems; and livelihood security for the poor. According to data collection and environment assessment studies of World Bank experts, between 1995 and 2010, the progress India has made in addressing its environmental issues and improving its environmental quality has been among the fastest in the world. Still, India has a long way to go to reach sustainable environmental quality.

Regarding the overwhelmingly positive feedback and the response we received from Indian partners and participants to the event we implemented so far, we deeply believe that they would respond equally positive to the opportunity to learn sustainability in school.

This background is strengthening our argumentation for introducing Sustainability as a separate subject at school. Our reasoning is initially based on several ideas:

- As India is having a very dynamic and young population, educating today’s children, from the earliest age, on sustainability will have a deep impact on future population and will benefit the country,

- Such a change in younger generations could benefit directly local communities, average citizens and future working population. In other words it will positively impact

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the society as a whole,

- Aspects of Indian cultures, mindsets and lifestyles already have sustainable characteristics on which the education for sustainability could be based on. Receptiveness of people we worked with so far prove that youth population are ready and interested by learning how to make their future better and sustainable,

- Environmental issues, among them all the changes the Earth is facing due to climate change, will have consequences in the whole world and on each human. India is facing these global challenges and other more specific. A governmental decision to teach sustainability at school would reach a great number of people regarding to India’s demographic, and permit a large spread of innovative and sustainable way of thinking,

- In the same line, India has become a dynamic economic actor in expansion and has a growing political influence on the regional and international scale. Innovative policies and support to a healthy economic development, respectful of the environment and considering social constraints would indubitably strengthen its influence and weights on the international scale.

6 – What could we do together?

We aim to enter a dialogue with Indian organisations (national authorities, civil society, media) and provide more details about our project. Furthermore, the project would support any activity aimed at introducing the new subject in the curricula, including participating at meetings and work groups, offering help and expertise, sustaining debates, etc.

Local organisations we would partner with should define their own set of measures and actions that are deemed necessary for reaching the project goal.

The actions should take into consideration the various local factors and current educational situation: is there already such a subject or similar one in place, are there any initiatives already started that might have a similar goal, what is the general attitude of authorities towards the subject, what is the procedure of introducing a new subject, how would such an initiative be received by schools and general public, etc.

In general, the actions defined by an organisation should fall in one of the following categories, based on the entity to be addressed:

Contacting schools in the country from various locations and backgrounds in order to collect their views on the suitability of the initiative for them, find out their main concerns and try to build a support network that can be used in the negotiations with official bodies;

Contacting local experts in education that can offer an informed opinion on the best ways to proceed and format most suitable for the country;

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Contacting ministries and other official bodies that act as decision-makers in the process in order to make the proposal and carry out negotiations;

Contacting local media in order to increase the public exposure of the project and build a support pool.

Nektarina will support each partner organization in the following ways:

We will provide appropriate support and expertise for any action and discussion about the topic;

Facilitate networking on the thematic on an international scale; Nektarina will offer logistic support to country partners in terms of project materials.

Any piece found in the Wiki section of the project website can be used by country partners;

Depending the actions planned, and based on an initial budget required by each country partner, Nektarina could seek appropriate sponsors that are willing to cover this budget.

The project website will be constantly updated with relevant information about the actions taking place in the countries. Information about the country partners and/or logo can be displayed on both the project and the Nektarina website;

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CONTACT USSuresh More |Project Manager INDIATel : +919850788999 /+917588539359Email : suresh@nektarinanonprofit.com

Marianne Poisson | Project Head CoordinatorUK: +447741942659Email : marianne@nektarinanonprofit.com

Sandra Antonovic | Co-Founder & CEOUK: +447741316632 | HR: +385995608309Editor- In-Chief Nektar ina (S)pace MagazineEmail : sandra@nektar inanonprofit.com

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