To provide inclusive and quality education for all, it is critical to incorporate sustainable development into the education system’s vision and concepts while carefully considering national and cultural values.
In this context of profound changes, SDC organised a study tour at the beginning of February 2023 for representatives from education agencies, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, and the Information and Training Centre for Nature and Environment NGO, who are national partners in the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) project. The study tour delegation had two objectives: to gain insights into education for sustainable development in Sweden and Switzerland and to showcase Mongolia’s achievements and progress in ESD during the International Cooperation Forum (IC Forum) 2023 in Geneva, the annual high-level forum organised by the FDFA.
During visits to the Swedish National Agency for Education and Uppsala University, the delegation was introduced to the education system and current sustainability trends and concepts in Swedish higher education. The Swedish public education system provides a wealth of ESD lessons learned for the global community. Mongolian teachers will benefit from participating in the international training platform and ESD teaching lessons led by Uppsala University.
While Sweden’s education system has some similarities to Mongolia’s public education system, Switzerland’s education system is more complex, with a federal structure and multilingualism. The visit to the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK) shed light on the system and how central, cantonal, and non-government organisations closely cooperate for ESD.
The Mongolian delegation also visited Swiss non-governmental organisations engaged in ESD teaching and learning, international exchange, outdoor environmental education, and the CDE at Bern University. During these meetings, potential partnerships were discussed, and follow-up steps will be initiated by the Mongolian side. The meeting with the UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE) was especially fruitful, as IBE expressed its readiness to support Mongolia in capacity building for Mongolian curricula developers and researchers.
Representatives from 120 countries participated in the Education4Future IC Forum 2023, in person and online. The Mongolian representatives, as national partners in the ESD project, not only attended the forum but also presented the results of the ESD project in Mongolia. SDC has supported ESD in Mongolia since 2014. While the first phase succeeded in mainstreaming ESD in the secondary education curricula, the second and final phase of the project is focused on transformative actions for sustainable development in schools and communities. Local schools are empowered to drive transformation by promoting sustainability actions in isolated rural nomadic communities and the capital city. The project schools were able to raise significant funds for their actions due to improved collaboration between national and subnational stakeholders, private and public players. The actual local commitment was 70 percent greater than the target amount. Bringing together representatives from various sectors to discuss and implement sustainable development actions was a critical success factor. Another enabling factor was the full delegation of implementation responsibility to the national government and non-governmental partners. The ESD actions had a significant impact on local social, environmental, and cultural issues, benefiting 29,500 students, their families, and communities.
In view of its phasing-out strategy, SDC is delighted to facilitate the establishment of partnerships between Swiss and Mongolian education organizations. We would like to emphasize that Mongolia has a lot to offer the global community from its experiences in transformation, digitalization, and educational reform processes.
