29 school classes from the district receive ESD diplomas

This school year, 29 school classes were certified with the diploma "Education for Sustainable Development". District Administrator Jürgen van der Horst personally presented some of the diplomas.

24 July 2023

Think and act in a sustainable way: For education in the field of sustainable development, the district has developed different teaching units together with cooperation partners, which schools in the district can use free of charge. After successful completion of the modules, they receive a diploma. This school year, 29 school classes will be certified with the ESD diploma.

Livable future for future generations
In times of great challenges such as climate change, social inequality, wars and environmental destruction, the importance of sustainable development is becoming increasingly clear. In order to ensure a future worth living for future generations, it is necessary to rethink and act in all areas of society. Education for Sustainable Development, or ESD for short, plays a crucial role in making this happen.

The district of Waldeck-Frankenberg has set itself the task of supporting schools financially and conceptually in the implementation of ESD. The "BNE-Diplom - Clever macht Zukunft" (ESD Diploma - Clever Makes the Future), which is designed and coordinated by the Schools and Education Department, gives pupils in primary and special schools as well as in years five and six of secondary schools the opportunity to deal with sustainable topics and contexts in their immediate living environment. As an award for successful participation, all participants receive a personal ESD certificate at the end of the course.

30,000 euros in funding for ESD projects
District Administrator Jürgen van der Horst now presented these diplomas - on behalf of all participating schools - to the students at the Breiter Hagen school in Bad Wildungen during the graduation ceremony for the graduates. All other schools will receive the diplomas as well. "Education plays an important role in fostering an understanding of complex interrelationships between the environment, economy, society, politics and culture," says District Administrator Jürgen van der Horst. "Therefore, the district supports the participating classes in implementing the ESD diploma with a total of 30,000 euros for the use of extracurricular education providers or for the purchase of teaching materials."

Cooperation with extracurricular education providers
The modular concept, which is based on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, enables school classes in cooperation with regional extracurricular education providers to make the consequences of climate change visible and tangible, for example through excursions into the forest, or to illustrate the importance of biodiversity for our ecosystem. Within the framework of the ESD diploma, the pupils can deal with other topics such as bee, bird and insect protection, earth history and geology, water, agriculture or also social topics such as children's rights, migration and integration as well as fair trade.

For example, the Breiter Hagen school in Bad Wildungen has successfully participated in the ESD Diploma with three classes within two school years. More classes will complete the programme in the next school year. During a watercourse survey with the Kellerwald-Edersee Nature Park, for example, the children researched the creatures and water quality in the local stream and developed sustainable action options in this subject area. At the educational apiary in Altwildungen, the children learned a lot about the life of bees and their relevance for us humans.

In the social training "stark bewegt" (strongly moved) provided by the district's sports and youth work department, social skills such as the ability to work in a team and deal with conflict, tolerance, reliability and a sense of responsibility for social interaction were also strengthened. Other main topics were agriculture and animal husbandry, nutrition and food, forests, trees and wild animals, as well as earth history, geology and local history.

"Participation in the ESD diploma offers the children added value that goes beyond environmental awareness, because the pupils can choose from a very diverse range offered by the modules," says the head of the Breiter Hagen school Grit Imhof. "In this way, important competences and value attitudes from the most diverse areas on the topic of sustainability are taught for their future." She also considers the cooperation with the extracurricular educational partners and the associated extracurricular places of learning to be very valuable.

In addition to the Breiter Hagen school, the following schools successfully completed the ESD diploma at the end of this school year:

Primary schools:

  • Cornelia-Funke-Schule Gemünden - two classes
  • Ederseeschule Herzhausen - two classes
  • Henkelschule Vöhl - two classes
  • Primary school Frankenau - two classes
  • Höringhausen primary school - one class
  • Primary school Röddenau - two classes
  • Schule am Goldberg Allendorf - seven classes
  • School Centre an der Warte Sachsenhausen- two classes

 

Secondary schools:

  • Alte Landesschule Korbach - one class
  • Cornelia-Funke-Schule Gemünden - two classes
  • Humboldt School Korbach - two classes
  • Upland School Willingen - one class


Keywords:

Education for Sustainable Development Specialist Service Schools and Education ESD Diploma