Dáil Éireann Debate, Monday - 11 September 2023
650. Deputy Neasa Hourigan asked the Minister for Education if she will outline the initiatives under her Department to assist schools in supporting sustainable practices, including but not limited to the re-homing of materials such as furniture; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38181/23]
View answerI can advise the Deputy that Education for Sustainable Development is a key priority and a 2nd National Strategy – ESD to 2030 – was published in June 2022, co-sponsored by the Department and the Departments of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (D.FHEEIRS) and Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (D.CEDIY).
ESD to 2030 aims to ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development – in accordance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals target 4.7,. Under our first ESD Strategy, ESD themes and principles were integrated across the curriculum at all levels, across the assessment and inspection processes and into Initial Teacher Education (Céim) and Continuing Professional Development for teachers.
ESD to 2030 aims to build on those foundations and has five priority areas for progress: Policy Alignment; Transforming Learning Environments; Capacity Building of Educators; Empowering and Mobilising Youth and Accelerating Local Level Action.
ESD to 2030 supports implementation of the Climate Action Plan and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) National Implementation Plan. Ireland’s Voluntary National Review 2023 was presented to the UN at the High Level Political Forum in July and Chapter 7.1 of the VNR provides a high level overview of the Education sectors contribution to the achievement of the 17 SDGs.
Some of the ESD to 2030 initiatives undertaken over the last year to assist schools in supporting sustainable practices include:
• Under the Climate Action Plan, the Department published the School Sector Climate Action Mandate. A Sustainability toolkit has also been developed in collaboration with stakeholders and this will be published in September 2023. The toolkit includes a Self-Assessment Sustainability Audit, Sustainability Guidelines and a template Sustainability Policy Statement, all aimed at supporting schools on their sustainability journeys. Information on the guidelines on reducing, re-using, and re-cycling and materials giving them scope to consider rehoming of furniture.
• ESD to 2030 funding was provided to schools and to organisations supporting ESD in schools in September 2022. Further funding was provided to Organisations in May 2023 (€267,000) and a call for ESD to 2030 funding for schools will issue in September with a total fund available of €500,000.
• The development of a new Leaving Certificate subject “Climate Action and Sustainable Development” for introduction in schools from September 2024.
• The Department issues a quarterly ESD newsletter to schools with information, exemplars, resources, competitions and a range of ESD related articles from across the education sector.
• ESD is included as a criteria for teacher summer course provision and for the Teacher Refund of Fees scheme. A mapping of teacher CPD in ESD has been commissioned and it is hoped that a list of CPD opportunities will be available for publication later in 2023.
• A school sector pathfinder programme, implemented jointly with SEAI, is paving the way for, and informing, a much larger national decarbonisation school sector programme for schools built prior to 2008 as included in the National Development Plan. The pathfinder programme is targeting energy use and CO2 emission reduction by 51%, testing deep retrofit and low carbon heating solutions. The programme has retrofitted 50 schools across Ireland to date with work on an additional 14 schools currently at various stages of progress. . The Department also recently published a school sector technical climate action roadmap, which outlines a high level initial trajectory for the school sector delivery of its energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. The roadmap is available here: gov.ie - School Sector Technical Climate Action Roadmap 2023 to 2030 (www.gov.ie)
• A comprehensive review of the School Transport scheme involves an in-depth analysis of scheme and its broader effectiveness and sustainability, and will build upon the commitments within the Programme for Government as they relate to school transport, including examining options to reduce car journeys and assessing how the School Transport Scheme can work in liaison with the Safe Routes to Schools Programme.
• ESD to 2030 has been accepted by UNESCO as a country initiative for implementing ESD, one of two countries in the Europe and North America region to have a country initiative accepted: ESD for 2030 country initiatives | UNESCO
• The Department is a member of the EU Working Group for Schools: Learning for Sustainability and hosted a meeting of the Working Group on the theme “Collaboration and Partnerships” in Kinsale Community School in May 2023, providing an opportunity for Ireland to demonstrate some of the ESD related work ongoing in schools and colleges in Ireland.
• An initial review of ESD to 2030 is currently underway and a report is expected to be published before the end of 2023.
• The ESD to 2030 webpage has all the details on the strategy and implementation plan, ESD to 2030 funding and copies of the ESD Newsletters: gov.ie - National Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development in Ireland (www.gov.ie).
