OSCE Centre supports education for sustainable development

PAVLODAR, Kazakhstan, 21 October 2008 - Best practices for introducing sustainable development in higher education are the focus of a workshop that started today in Pavlodar.

The three-day event is organized by the OSCE Centre in Astana together with the Ministries of Education and Environmental Protection and the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC). It marks the end of the Centre's pilot project at the Pedagogical Institute in Pavlodar, where a module on ecology and sustainable development has been tested for the first time. The results are now being shared with other universities in Central Asia.

"We believe that education for sustainable development is essential for raising awareness about environmental protection and security among the new generation, and we hope that the results of the OSCE pilot project will be useful for developing similar courses at educational institutions in Kazakhstan and elsewhere," said Ambassador Alexandre Keltchewsky, Head of the OSCE Centre in Astana.

More than 40 people from institutions for higher education, ministries and civil society are taking part in the workshop. A key challenge under discussion is how to further strengthen the legal and institutional framework for education for sustainable development and continue the efforts after the pilot project.

The project was designed under the framework of implementation of the Concept on Transition to a Sustainable Development 2007-2024, a main priority of the government.

"We have to continue efforts to introduce education for sustainable development in the system of formal education in Kazakhstan. Courses on ecology and sustainable development need to be incorporated not only in the ecology module but in other disciplines as well," said Bakhytgul Smailova, Head of the Department on Graduate and Postgraduate Education at the Ministry of Education and Science.