Within the context of promoting Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Egyptian public schools Heliopolis University organized a five days-workshop for teachers and trainers from the governmental education sector. According to an agreement between the Heliopolis University’s Center of Excellence and the Egyptian Ministry for Education 150 UNESCO affiliated schools shall integrate ESD within their curricula in the near future, ten of them by this year’s September.
“Besides the overcrowded classes in schools and the school’s poor infrastructure, the most critical problem is the lack of qualified teachers to transfer the ESD mission”, says Mohamed Anwar, ESD trainer in SEKEM. Hence, a Training-of-Trainers (TOT) Program was organized by the Heliopolis University’s Center of Excellence. Representatives of UNESCO affiliated schools from all over Egypt as well as co-workers from the Egyptian Ministry of Education attended the workshop.
SEKEM School, which is now one of the UNESCO affiliated schools as well, was presented as a role model for successfully implementing Education for Sustainable Development. “I was impressed by the way how SEKEM School is approaching ESD with its students”, says Dr. Azza Khalil, the representative from the Cultural and Foreign Relations department from the Egyptian Ministry of Education. “The comprehensive training program will qualify teachers to transfer the message of Sustainable Education to their students and also colleagues.”
Education for Sustainable Development in Slum Areas
SEKEM at UNESCO World Conference on ESD