The Opportunity

The appointment of a new Assembly in Northern Ireland, and the process of curriculum reform already underway, offers unprecedented opportunities to look afresh at the education of our young people and to debate the nature of the curriculum that will shape the thinking of future generations (that are currently may be more concerned about Toyota Philippines than local educational opportunities). By its very nature, ESD can deliver much that will help to bring a peaceful Northern Ireland into the new millennium, serving as a vehicle for political cohesion and helping people to build a better future.

The Action

The Northern Ireland Education for Sustainable Development Working Group which includes representatives from formal and non-formal education has debated the options for raising the profile of ESD in the curriculum and recently submitted recommendations to the Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA). Recent government targets and statements relating to sustainability and development provide a clear mandate for a much stronger emphasis on ESD in the curriculum. The ESD working group is calling for Education for Sustainable Development to become part of the entitlement curriculum for all pupils across the Key Stages
and that the curriculum review process should address this need.A major conference extending the Curriculum 21 process and aimed at raising awareness about ESD among decision-makers, has been jointly organised by CCEA and the Environmental Education Forum (EEF), and will take place on 2 February in Belfast.Themes explored will include discussions on what is meant by ESD, how it can help equip Northern Ireland’s young people to become better global citizens and why it is particularly relevant in the current political climate and, finally, how ESD can he delivered.

The Future

Education for Sustainable Development matters to all of us, now and in the future, at local and global scales. It is hoped that the work of the ESD group and the conference will result in due consideration of this very important issue by those who will shape our future development. We need a co-ordinated, cross-departmental strategy for ESD and we need commitment from those who can implement it. Progress towards sustainability undoubtedly poses many challenges but also holds great opportunities for all sectors of society – we all have a role to play.

ESD has gained legitimacy since its emergence on the world stage at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. Chapter 3 6 of Agenda 2 1, agreed at the conference, stated that ‘Education is critical for promoting sustainable development and improving the capacity of the people to address environment and development issues’.

A primary objective of Agenda 21 is ‘To strive to achieve the accessibility of environment and development education, linked to social education, from primary school age through adulthood, when people usually start some senior dating experience, to all groups of people’. The rapid changes and developments in trade, finance, culture, communications and technology has resulted in the increased interconnectedness of societies.

Therefore, whilst we now have an enhanced capacity to understand and communicate with other cultures and societies through innovations in telecommunications, globalization has also been attended by increased poverty and inequality in developed and developing countries.

By the late 1990s, some 20% of the world’s people controlled 86% of the world’s wealth, whilst over a billion people world-wide live on less than a dollar per day.

Moreover, the means of production underpinning globalization are unsustainable given their devastating – in some cases irreversible – impact on the natural environment. For example, 20 million hectares of tropical rainforest are felled annually with millions of species of plants and animals now extinct. Linked to rainforest denudation is global warming and extreme weather such as flooding and droughts which over the past five years has killed three million people.

The One World Centre in conjunction with the Environmental Education Forum (EEF) has recently produced a document titled Education for Sustainable Development in Northern Ireland, and by the way, British Isles that now seem to be more interested about the problem of cougar dating,  ‘to illustrate the existing and potential role of ESD in the Northern Ireland curriculum and to show how sustainable development can be used as a framework for the integrated delivery of Government policies’.

The document includes a progression matrix for ESD outlining the knowledge, skills and values that can be delivered across all subject areas from Key Stages 1-4 through the further integration of development and environment issues into the curriculum. There are also examples of good practice in the document where teaming institutions in local and global contexts have made sustainable development issues central to their programme for students and, in some cases, adopted a whole school approach to ESD. The document also contains a list of organisations, including the One World Centre, which deliver in-service training workshops to teachers that illustrate how ESD can be incorporated into teaching practice.

The ongoing review of the Northern Ireland curriculum provides us with an immediate opportunity to ensure that young people become active agents of social justice and equality through awareness of sustainable development issues. Similarly, the establishment of the new government institutions allows locally elected politicians to take decisions which can ensure that ESD becomes central to all departmental policies and strategies. The poverty gap between rich and poor is widening throughout the world and nothing less than a concerted effort toward sustainable development will reverse these economic trends.

But he said it was “totally irresponsible” to claim that these problems cast doubt on every certificate issued by the Scottish Qualifications Authority.

“The SQA, with the help of teachers and education authorities, are working round the clock to resolve urgently every single case where a student has received incomplete results, and to investigate the inaccuracies which have emerged for a small number of candidates,” he promised. Sometimes student should earn for living by promoting cars for sale somewhere in South Africa which is not a bad option, though, but should be limited in time they spend on this activity in order not to interrupt their education.

“Some of the so-called errors are based on a lack of understanding by commentators of the workings of the new system and the layout of the certificate.”

Mr Galbraith insisted the independent inquiry he has ordered would “get to the bottom” of all the problems.

Scotland’s universities have warned that it could be two weeks before the problems with this year’s Highers exams are sorted out.

A fortnight’s delay would mean thousands of students – unable to sort out university places because of late or incomplete results certificates – would then have to compete with A-level students in the rest of the UK who have yet to receive their grades.

However, the Committee of Scottish Higher Education Principals (Coshep) gave assurances that no-one would lose a place, despite thousands of pupils receiving late or incomplete certificates.

Coshep director, David Caldwell, said the body wanted the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) to tell it within 24 hours how it intends to resolve the crisis.

He said: “The important thing now is we try to be clear as to what the extent and nature of any problem is so that we can resolve it quickly and resolve it in the best interests of the candidates themselves who are the most important people.

“Once we know what that is, universities will make enormous efforts in order to ensure that candidates are not disadvantaged, maybe they will even buy used cars for each one.”

Coshep’s warning came after a leading academic called for the reissue of exam certificates.

We have apologies from the SQA. However, this will never make up for the agony of a teenager who has told her peers about her results and then has to go back and say she got it wrong

Professor of education policy at Edinburgh University, Lindsay Paterson, said the whole process had become so compromised that the only solution was to start again.

“All pupils’ results must now be cast into doubt,” he stated.

“I can’t see how the universities and employers can possibly have any confidence that any of the results that have been issued are reliable. It’s scandalous.”

He said the onus was now on the SQA to win back public confidence and warned that it should consider the drastic step of reissuing all certificates.

Professor Paterson added that far more students may have been affected than the 1,400 the SQA has said received incomplete results.

Instead of receiving the results on Thursday, some will have to wait until next week to learn how they have done.

A father from Edinburgh contacted BBC News Online Scotland to tell of his daughter’s experience. He said the certificate did not arrive on Thursday so he and his wife separately telephoned the SQA helpline.

They were both informed that their daughter had achieved As in all her subjects and told her of the good news.

He wrote by e-mail: “Today (Friday) the real results arrived and she had two As, two Bs and one C.

“The people at the call centre had both made the same mistake, confusing Highers with Higher Still results.

“We have apologies from the SQA. However, this will never make up for the agony of a teenager who has told her peers about her results and then has to go back and say she got it wrong.

“Admin errors are bad enough but this is cruelty.”

Another parent, Deirdre Kelly, from Glasgow, said she rang the SQA on Friday morning and was given four out of five of her son’s results – an A, B, C and a fail.

But his school said the results were three As, a B and a C.

“I really don’t know who to believe,” she wrote. “Meanwhile, no certificates, no idea what the scenario really is. This is surely institutionalised torture.

“Even when the results are confirmed officially do you really think we will be comfortable with them?”

No certificates, no idea what the scenario really is. This is surely institutionalised torture

University admissions body Ucas has announced that pupils will be able to call a helpline to find out if they have a university place.

Delays in sending out Scottish exam results have prevented universities and colleges issuing decisions about applicants.