By Dorpaima Lumban Gaol, Indonesia
2020 is the decade for the entire United Nations members to be prepared to set strategies for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets up to 2030. The SDGs are designed to involve development agencies such as governments, the private sector, the Civil Society Organization, and academics. The implementation of SDGs is also the responsibility of many parties and sectors. Among the 17 points of SDGs that will achieve as its outcome, in this article I will share about the importance of involving and empowering educators and parents as the first sticks in educational institutions or home-based in realizing an Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). We all believe that education is an important key to building the quality of human resources.
Empowering educators in SDGs implementation. What can they do?
In the education institution system, every educator in the school can apply the basic values
of SDGs such as teach the students how in managing personal waste (SDG 13), takes an
active role in the schools education system (SDG 4), etc. In these ways, children will have
the interest and awareness to actively participate in helping educators implement the values
of SDGs in schools, promote it student to student, and even these SDGs can also be included in the students’ subjects or additional informal lessons.
Parents take a role: Here are the actions
SDGs seems can be implemented in an institution only. Parents played a huge role in this
regard. As parents who spend a lot of time with children, parents become more
understanding of what their children and characters are favored. Parents can embed SDGs
values such as tolerance (SDG 16), caring for the environment (SDG 13), build empathy for
marginalized people in your surroundings (SDG 1), etc.
Those simple things can develop according to the situation and their own culture. Another action that can do by educators is to adopt lessons learn for the student, and parents can also use this book as a resource. Another resource is The SDGs coloring book for Children, providing an interesting preliminary approach in achieving education for sustainable development.
