Shaping tomorrow

Inspiring students to play their respective social roles and participate in various activities could help translate the ideas of sustainable development into voluntary action for youth, said Zhang Ruige, deputy director of the China Soong Ching Ling Science and Culture Center for Young People at a recent forum.

The First International Forum on Children and Youth Education for Sustainable Development, held by the center, invited around 300 experts in education from China and other countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and Iran to discuss how to empower younger generations with competency for sustainable development for the future. The two-day event wrapped up on Jan 17.

Roundtables were also held during the forum for leaders of primary and middle schools to discuss such topics as how to construct a green, low-carbon campus and integrate ideas of sustainable development into everyday teaching activities.

Zhang says China's education system has been looking at sustainable development, in such aspects as basic abilities, scientific knowledge, cultural exchanges, nature exploration and international vision.

"Our center will keep constructing an improved educational system for sustainable development and share China's lessons with the world," he says.

The past two years witnessed the effective implementation of projects focusing on water conservation and environmental protection by the center and water resources departments across the country.

Teachers and students from primary and middle schools in Beijing, Wuhan, Hubei province, Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Fuzhou, Fujian province, and some other cities have been trained and encouraged to protect rivers and lakes in their hometowns.

Liang Lizhu, president of a primary school in Liwan district, Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, took part in such activities and turned into a river-protection volunteer herself.

Located near Simachong River, the school seeks to incorporate environmental protection into its curriculum. Courses that combine environmental science with geography and biology have been designed to cultivate qualified volunteers for river management in the area. Young students get the opportunity to help with testing water quality, promote water conservation in communities and plant flowers along the river.

"Such experiences have gradually formed their awareness of saving and protecting water resources, as well as a sense of social responsibility," says Liang.

Beijing National Day School has also made its own attempts to stimulate students' voluntary action in sustainable development. To revitalize labor education, the school has turned a stretch of land on campus into farmland. Farming tools and detailed instructions are provided for students to have a hands-on experience of growing crops, vegetables and fruits.

"We also have cooking classes where students can make dishes using what they've harvested from the farmland. Then they are more likely to understand that every single grain is the result of someone's toil," Cao Haiyun, a teacher from the school, says.

"After that it's natural for them to avoid wasting food," he adds.

Wei Rui, a professor at Beijing Normal University, says children's endeavors to live a low-carbon life and participate in voluntary services is an index to assess their sustainability literacy which refers to the knowledge, skills and mindsets that allow individuals to become deeply committed to building a sustainable future and assisting in making informed and effective decisions to this end.

The center is collaborating with BNU to work out a model for young people's sustainability literacy by which those pertinent skills can be quantitative. Then it would be easier for policymakers, leaders and educators who intend to cultivate youth with competency of sustainable development to explain the concept, as well as develop and assess the skills.

Wei says Chinese people attach importance to moral education, so the model will highlight merits that are valued in Chinese culture.

"We hope to fuse Chinese wisdom with the model and make it in line with our national conditions," he says.

The model will also stress youngsters' ability to find innovative solutions to address challenges, which requires critical thinking, teamwork, self-cognition and risk-assessment skills, digital literacy and intercultural communication competence, he adds.