Educational institutions involved in the municipality in order to improve sustainable development

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yDuring the last 25 years, the Ministries of Education and of the Environment of the Basque Country have been working on the environmental education of its school children to provide them with the environmental values that will enable them to be people committed to and aware of their natural environment. The values have been promoted among the educational community thanks to an instrument whose results have shown it to be highly useful. It is the School Agenda 21 Programme of the Basque Country which was introduced during the 2003-2004 academic year. The programme has three main objectives:

• sustainable management of the resources of the centre and of its surroundings• curriculum innovation• participation culture

Educational institutions of the Basque Country, local councils and the Basque Country’s Ministries of Education and of the Environment actively take part in the programme.

Basque Government Ministry for Education,

Language Policy and Culture

Basque Government

Ministry for the Environment and Territorial Policy

Coordinationbetweenschools

Support help

Advising Training

Financial assistant

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Ingurugela 14

ADVISORS SCHOOLS

City council

Technicalassistants

The schools prepare their own School Agendas 21 in collaboration with other centres in their same town or district. They also take part in the Local Agendas 21 of their municipalities.Each centre works on a previously agreed environmental aspect and the school children’s proposed improvement are then presented to the local councils. The municipal authorities listen to the children and young people and respond to the proposals.

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2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14

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STUDENTS TAKING PART

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• It is an innovation project that considers school sustainable development in management, in the curriculum and in participation. It also educates throughout the school setting: families of the children, local stakeholders, and so on.

• The programme has managed to involve 70% of the schools of the Basque Country in a voluntary project for sustainable development. This is the 12th academic year that the project has been run. In 2003, it began with 27 educational institutions and there are now 460 involved.

• Even though the project requires the involvement of and effort from the teaching staff, there is a high degree of satisfaction among the coordinators and staff.

• School networks have been set up in local councils and districts that work together. The programme welcomes any type of non-university educational institution, whether publicly-funded or private and at all levels (infant’s, primary and secondary education, and vocational training).

• Involving schools in municipal management. The local councils listen to and respond to the schools’ proposals.

• Appropriate waste management, sustainable mobility, biodiversity..., respecting the environment has become part of the curricula and life at the centres.

• The professional skills of the teaching staff have been enhanced as training is combined with project development.

• Setting up of a network of officially recognised sustainable schools that foster best practices models for other schools.

Sust

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During the 2007-08 academic year, the Basque Government introduced a process to identify and publicly recognise the outstanding experiences within the School Agenda 21 Programme of the Basque Country.The schools have to have participated in the School Agenda 21 Programme for at least 5 years, after which they can conduct a self-assessment, in order to be officially recognised as a sustainable school. The process ends with an assessment committee conducting an external audit. In the first call that the Government organised to award this public recognition, 25 educational institutions obtained the diploma accrediting them as “Sustainable Schools”. This process has now been run seven times and 20% of the centres of the Basque Country taking part in the School Agenda 21 Programme are currently accredited. Those 90 recognised centres make up the IRAES 21 Network and all their work is showcased in two blogs:• http://iraes21.blogspot.com.es• http://iraes21-ikasleak.blogspot.com.es/

Conf

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Sharing our experience with the world International Youth Conference (CONFINT)Conference: Let’s Take Care of the Planet Thanks to the sound environmental education received by Basque schoolchildren, they were among the young people aged 12 to 15 from around the world that the Brazilian Ministry of Education invited to take part in the International Youth Conference (CONFINT) in 2013, under the slogan “Let’s Take Care of the Planet”, to discuss global climate change problems.

The main goals of the conference were:

- to empower young people from around the world to embrace global commitments locally, by assuming responsibilities to construct sustainable societies.

- promoting a “Save the Planet" network.

During the Conference, the young Basques along with young people from around the world attended the talks given by school children: five regional, three state, one European and two international (Brazil) talks.

In 2014, this Conference will be held in Barcelona from 12 to 14 November.

220,576 children took part in the programme during the academic year

Participating educational institutes

Students 220.576

Centers 459

Municipalities

Municipalities 118

11 topics studied

Topics 11

Students’ commitments

Commitments 750

975

Proposals to the Municipalities

Proposals

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ject

s IHITZA magazine• IHITZA aims to provide non-university teaching staff with, experiences, resources and ideas to incorporate the environmental perspective into the curriculums and the life of the schools.

http://www.ingurumena.ejgv.euskadi.net/informacion/ihitza-magazine/r49-4155/en/

ANALYSIS Programme• This programme seeks to protect the environment by means of awareness raising and encouraging participation. There are two campaigns, AZTERKOSTA along the coast and IBAIALDE in our rivers.

http://www.ingurumena.ejgv.euskadi.net/r49-4152/eu/contenidos/informacion/aztertu_programa/eu_aztertu/indice.html

Osprey Project• This cooperation project involves schools from different countries working on recovering the osprey. Bird migration and their survival problems are the basis for the exchange of knowledge and experience with schools in Europe, America and Africa.

http://www.birdcenter.org/en/about-us/urdaibai-ospreys

More information: ingurugela@ej-gv.esAngélica San Martín

a-sanmartin@ej-gv.es+34944114999