Education as a catalyst for sustainable development

Education plays vital role in the socio cultural and economic development of a country. A strong education system broadens access to opportunities, improves health, and bolsters the resilience of communities. It provides the skills people need to thrive in the new sustainable economy, working in areas such as renewable energy, smart agriculture, forest rehabilitation, the design of resource-efficient cities, and sound management of healthy ecosystems.Education brings about a fundamental shift in how we think, act, and discharge our responsibilities toward people and nature. After all, while financial incentives, targeted policies, and technological innovation are needed to catalyse new ways of producing and consuming, they cannot reshape people’s value systems so that they willingly uphold and advance the principles of sustainable development. Schools, however, can nurture a new generation of environmentally savvy citizens to support the transition to a prosperous and sustainable future.Education provides the means by which one generation transfers the legacy to the next in the form of culture, values, knowledge, discoveries, innovations etc. Without inter-generational education, very little in a human context can be sustainable. Education is also important to formulate, challenge and disseminate ideas, knowledge, skills, and values within communities and between communities, nations, and continents. Education is identified as a key element of sustainability-focused strategies in many contexts and levels. The critical role of education has been reconfirmed in the formulation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development.According to UNESCO Education for Sustainable Development includes key sustainable development issues into teaching and learning; for example, climate change, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity, poverty reduction, and sustainable consumption.It also requires participatory teaching and learning methods that motivate and empower learners to change their behaviour and take action for sustainable development. Education for Sustainable Development consequently promotes competencies like critical thinking, imagining future scenarios and making decisions in a collaborative way.Education for Sustainable Development requires far-reaching changes in the way education is often practised today.This paper attempts to discuss issues such as importance of education in sustainable development, curriculum for sustainable development and pedagogical approaches in sustainable development.