Early Childhood Education for Sustainable
Development: OMEP Preschool Partnerships
Social/Cultural
Economic
Environmental
Prof John Siraj-Blatchford
University of Swansea
OMEP (World Organisation for
Early Childhood Education)
An NGO founded in Prague in 1948
Historically related to UNESCO
Foundational aims for building peace
education
An international network and support
for professionals within Early
Childhood Education
OMEP (Organisation Mondiale
Education Prescholaire)
65 National Committees.
 Consultative status to UN and UNESCO
 Provides curriculum support, publishes
books, journals, research and development,
conferences etc.
 Currently engaged in a major initiative in
support of Education for Sustainable
Development in the Early Years (ESDEC)
The OMEP perspective on Sustainable
Development: Consistency with the MDGs
Concerns regarding the health of children and the
health of the environment are intimately interlinked:
“From long standing hazards to emerging
ones, environmental factors are
estimated to contribute up to 25% of
death and disease globally reaching
nearly 35% in some African regions.
Children are most vulnerable to the
impact of harmful conditions and account
for 66% of the victims of environmentinduced illnesses."
United Nations Environment Programme
MDG 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability "Integrate
sustainable development principles into country policies"
The OMEP perspective on Sustainable
Development: a logical Continuum
1. Preparing children for any
future emergencies – Disaster
Risk Reduction
2. Emergency responses –
providing aid for e.g.
hurricanes/floods
3. Medium Term targeted
responses - Wash in
Schools/Wash from the Start
4. Medium/Long term (and
remedial) responses - current
mainstream practice in Education
for Sustainable Development
(Recycling, saving electricity etc)
…Young Children have the right to be consulted - Article 12 UNCRC.
Research evidence and
priorities
In the pre-school period:
 Children have ‘agency’
 They can hypothesise about the future
 They develop capability in classification
 They develop a theory of mind
 They begin to aquire ‘mental verbs’
 They apply logical reasoning
©JSB2011
Early Childhood Education
Gothenburg Recommendations:
 Building upon the everyday experience of children
 Curriculum integration and creativity
 Intergenerational problem solving and solution
seeking
 Promotion of intercultural understanding and
recognition of interdependency
 Involvement of the wider community
 Active citizenship in the early years
 The creation of cultures of sustainability
Link
Why Early Childhood?
Sustainable development is
fundamentally concerned with issues of:
Citizenship
Human Rights and the
Rights of the Child
Social Justice
Why ESD in Early Childhood?
The logic comes directly from Brundtland’s
definition of Sustainable Development (1987):
“Development that meets the needs
of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to
meet their needs”
ENGLAND
October 2012
KENYA
OMEP Parent Partnerships Pilot Project
• 56% of Kenyan’s live below the poverty line
• 65 percent of the children aged 3-6 years are currently not
accessing ECDE services. In arid and semi-arid areas only
9 percent of children aged 3-6 access ECDE services.
• 56% of teachers remain untrained (turnover 40%
annually)
• 122,000 under 5 year olds die each year and these deaths
are caused mostly by lack of water, sanitation and
hygiene.
• 75% of children are unable to wash their hands with soap
or ash after visiting the latrine and before eating.
A rural school in
Kenya
Typical teacher
salary is between
£16 - £30 a month
(2,000 – 4,000 Ksh)
One Chicken in
Kenya costs about
600 Ksh…
Playing
Drawing
Pets
Singing
Modelling
Eating
Reading
Uniform
Toys
Painting
Swinging
Sleeping
The teachers
Writing
Skipping
Chairs
Toys
Blackboard
Books
Shoes
Socks
Mattresses
Crayons
Water
Tables
Porridge
Fees
Uniform
Pencils
Play
equipment
“Toys”
Innovation
Innovation
Kibera is the biggest slum in
Kenya. It is only 5 kms from the
Nairobi city centre and houses
almost 1 million of people. They
occupying just 6% of the land of
Nairobi but representing 60% of
the city population. The average
size of a shack is 12ft x 12ft built
with mud walls, screened with
concrete, a corrugated tin roof, dirt
or concrete floor.
SODIS
Tippy-tap
http://www.ecesustainability.org
UK Preschools
Can support their partners by:
- Providing support in sustaining and developing
their preschool provision
- Developing their resources and curriculum
- Sharing knowledge and ideas
- Listening and Learning
- Fund raising (when appropriate) for JUSTICE
rather than CHARITY
Rio: The Future We Want
Many schools in the global North
have links with schools in Africa
but their focus on fundraising
can often reinforce negative
stereotypes about Africans being
“helpless”.
The Carbon Partners model
turns the idea of fundraising
“out of kindness” around by
showing that, based on
carbon usage, the school in
the global North actually
“owes” their partner school a
greater share!
Carbon Convergence
OMEP Preschool Partnerships
Partnership URLs:
Partnership Site
The Preschool Partners
Kangoro Preschool – The Grove Dorchester
Embu Preschool – St John’s Preschool
Partnership Site
Communications Protocol
Postal and banking Protocols
Environmental Practice
Social/Cultural Practice
Economic Practice
Library
News
OMEP Preschool Partnerships
United Nations Sponsored Events:
March 22nd World Water Day 2013
April 7th World Health Day 2013
April 29th International Dance Day 2013
May 22nd International Day for Biological Diversity 2013
June 5th World Environment Day 2013
Augst 9th International Day of the Worlds Indigenous People 2013
September 21st International Day of Peace 2013
October 15th Global Handwashing Day 2013
October 16th World Food Day 2013
November 20th Universal Children’s Day 2013
What is Early Childhood Education for
Sustainable Development?
We can develop common overall
principles even if the early
childhood practices we seen in
different countries look very
different…
…in some national contexts
the provision of early
childhood education is itself
a legitimate sustainable
development objective.
What is Recyling?
Minority
World
“Every ton of plastic bottles recycled saves ~3.8 barrels of oil”
http://vertvogue.blogspot.com/2009/02/introduction-united-states.html
What is Recyling?
Majority
World
A recycled oil barrel and an old axle used to transport water in
South Sudan
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ngari/3318693947/
What is an entrepreneur?
Majority
World
Jane is a street-side lunch lady in Nairobi.
She is a micro-entrepreneur, and small business owner.
http://www.poptech.org/blog/index.php?s=entrepreneurship
Charlie Simpson – a social entrepreneur?
UNICEF Haiti campaign £210,000
Education for Sustainable Living
The life skills that are needed:
 Reflection
 Taking responsibility
 Consultation
 Creativity
 Collaboration
 Commitment
UNEP/PERL
Siraj-Blatchford, J., Smith, K., and Pramling Samuelson, I.
(2010) Education for Sustainable Development in the
Early Years, Organisation Mondiale Pour l´Education
Prescolaire (OMEP)
EPSD (2010) Taking Children Seriously, Report from the
European Panel on Sustainable Development
SWEDESD (2008) The Gothenburg Recommendations
on Education for Sustainable development, SWEDESD
Siraj-Blatchford J. & MacLeod-Brudenell, I. (1999)
Supporting Science, Design and Technology in the
Early Years, Open University Press
http://www.ecesustainability.org
Siraj-Blatchford, J (2008) 'The implications of early
understandings of inequality, science and technology for the
development of sustainable societies' in Samuelsson, I and
Kaga, Y (Eds), The contribution of early childhood
education to a sustainable society. Paris: UNESCO.
http://www.327matters.org