News

The UNESCO 2019 Forum on Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship took place on 2-3 July 2019 in Hanoi, Vietnam, under the overarching theme “Learning and Teaching for Peaceful and Sustainable Societies: From early childhood to primary and secondary education”.

This Forum was organized by UNESCO, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Training of Viet Nam and the Viet Nam National Commission for UNESCO, with the additional support of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (MEXT), the UNESCO Japanese Funds-in-Trust for the Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development, and the Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU).

The Forum was kicked off with the opening and congratulatory remarks by the representatives of the organizers. APCEIU Director, Mr Hyun Mook Lim, in his remarks, highlighted the common vision of ESD and GCED which aims to make our world more just, inclusive, peaceful and sustainable. On top of that, he urged the collective efforts of ESD and GCED in a holistic way to mainstream them into curricula and policies despite some differences between them. 

Also, APCEIU organized concurrent session 5.2 entitled “The role of teacher training in promoting the social and emotional and behavioural dimensions of learning of ESD and GCED”. By bringing a panel of experts and practitioners together, the session provided rich insights based on the research results from the experiences in teacher exchange which had impacts on minds and attitudes of teachers and students. Furthermore, while sharing progress, achievements and challenges, the panelists discussed how we could make difference in teacher training to transform the learners’ mindset more effectively, with a focus on the international teacher exchange as one of the innovative ways in teacher training.

The 2-day meeting comprised of a myriad of sessions such as panel discussions, town hall meetings, workshops and etc., addressed how the cognitive, socio-emotional and behavioural dimensions of Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education are reflected in pre-primary, primary and secondary education.

With approximately 340 stakeholders from the fields of GCED and ESD across the globe, this Forum successfully concluded pledging to get together again at the Forum in 2021. The upcoming Forum will be devoted to reviewing the global progress made in the areas of ESD and GCED enshrined in Target 4.7 of the Sustainable Development of Goal (SDG) 4 on Education.

URL:

APCEIU calls upon the collective efforts of GCED & ESD at the UNESCO 2019 Forum > APCEIU News - APCEIU (unescoapceiu.org)

Photo credit: UNESCO HQ