RCE Jordan

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RCE Jordan

• International Conference on RCEs
• Yokohama, Japan
• 12-14 April 2006
• Kirsten Neumann

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(No Transcript)
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Background Jordan

• Constitutional Monarchy since 1946
• Parliamentary elections since 1989
• Peace Treaty with Israel in 1994
• Joined WTO in 2000
• Joined the European Free Trade Association in
  2001
• Lack of natural resources
• 2.6 arable land, rest is arid and semi-arid
  deserts and desert plateaus
• Jordanian population is about 5.8 Million (40 of
  Palestinian origin 500,000 Iraqis)

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Background Jordan II

• National Agenda to lay out goals until 2015
• ranks number 90 on the global UNDP Human
  Development Index
• adult literacy rate of 90
• average life expectancy of 71.3 years
• Large income gaps - 30 below national poverty
  line (acc. to international donor organizations)
• Unofficial unemployment rate at 30
• 70 of the country under the age of 29
• Centralization and urbanization - 65 live in the
  three major cities

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• JORDAN RCE gap analysis based on stakeholder
  interviews

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Environmental Issues

• Freshwater Degradation
• Waste Management
• Energy generation
• Structural Issues
• little integration of environmental issues in all
  sectors of the economic cycle of the country
• little effective coordination between different
  agencies responsible for environmental issues
• a need to educate all people about the
  environment and its impact on the well being of
  all

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Education

• Enrolment ratio in classes 1 to 10 is 94 and in
  classes 11 to 12 is 75
• JHDR lack in quality of education, both
  curricular and structural (facilities) leading to
  an increase in drop out rates regional
  disparity
• Education often not perceived as leading to
  gainful employment

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Centre of Strategic Studies Survey

• Asked about the most important issue meriting
  consideration, the following ranking was given
• The most important problem is rated to be
  poverty and unemployment with 54,
• Financial and administrative corruption with
  28.
• The Palestinian issue with 8.9.
• Enhancing democracy and freedom of expression
  and resolving the Iraqi issue.

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Exchange

• High punctual awareness about Sustainable
  Development in Certain Areas (e.g. either
  environment or economic development or
  education), but no integrated holistic view
• Little interaction, exchange of information or
  inter-organizational, inter-disciplinary dialogue
  between
• Activities
• Sectors
• Faculties
• Actors

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Cooperation

• Lack of cooperation
• Information-exchange
• Collaboration on activities
• Accepting and utilizing knowledge and expertise
  from other actors or experts of a different field
  (universities vs. Ministries vs. communities vs.
  NGOs)
• Lack of tools for cooperation (quote we dont
  know how to cooperate)
• Working culture

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Quality of Education

• Neither education in schools nor higher education
  really caters to the needs of the labor market
• Education should teach practical skills and
  subjects
• It should teach interdisciplinary and critical
  thinking and own initiative as well as
  theoretical knowledge
• Need for graduates with backgrounds on
  Sustainable Development
• Needs to be change in mentality has to be
  achieved to change from being consumers of
  knowledge to producers of knowledge
• Students ought to be encouraged to be
  self-reliant and to have confidence in their
  ability to develop and to claim their rights and
  to influence change.

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Teaching methods

• Teaching methods do not encourage critical
  thinking or creativity - no holistic approach
• Teaching is teacher centered instead of student
  centered
• Lack of emphasis on soft skills
• Lack of empowerment
• Lack of fostering the development of citizenship,
  responsibility and action

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Cultural Issues

• Need to nurture local identity AND focus on
  global issues
• Need to integrate tradition and modernity
• Identities
• Values
• Frameworks
• Development

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• The RCE JORDAN

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Current Stakeholders of RCE

• Ministry of Education
• Educational plans for all formal education
• Curriculum development
• Implementation of ERFKE
• Ministry of Environment
• Strong knowledge and expertise on all
  environmental issues in Jordan
• Environmental laws and regulations
• Trade and Environment Committee
• JUST
• Environmental Science and Technology research
• Capacity building and consultancy

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Current Stakeholders II

• IUCN WESCANA
• Environment and Conservation
• Advocacy and non-formal education
• Plans to establish a regional ESD programme
• RSCN
• Creation and maintenance of national parks
• Income generating activities for park residents
• Nature teams in schools (about 1000)
• ESD manual for MoEdu prepared
• Training of trainers
• Regional project of ESD, preparing materials for
  pupils age 10-15

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Current Stakeholders III

• JU department of education
• Research on education and curriculum development
• Teacher training
• Private Schools
• Formal primary and secondary education
• Holistic education concept example of good
  practice
• JCPP
• Industry cooperation
• Cooperation among many stakeholders on SD
• Expertise and training on cleaner production
• JU Water Environment Research and Training
  Centre
• Technical expertise on water issues
• Donor cooperation
• Training of students

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Stakeholders IV

• JRF
• Community development and capacity building
  experience
• Economic development projects expertise
• Income generating projects with environmental
  aspects
• JOHUD/ZENID
• Community work on improvement of education
• Empowerment of women and youth
• MECANA project rights approach
• Work with municipalities and local authorities
• Advocacy and campaigning work
• CDCs network community needs assessments
• Strengthen the development aspect in SD

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RCE Jordan Vision Mission

• Vision
• To achieve an improved quality of life through
  the integration and implementation of Education
  for Sustainable Development
• Mission
• To develop, advance, and integrate concepts,
  tools and mechanisms, of Education for
  Sustainable Development into all relevant sectors
  in Jordan.

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Process

• Stakeholders were approached by UNU-ILI
• Baselines Study and interviews
• Initial workshop with 10 original stakeholders
  (25 Sept. 2006) - ESD in general
• Second workshop with 13 stakeholders, 21 Nov.
  2006 - draft objectives, draft working structure
• Inauguration 21 Nov. 2006 (Min. Edu, Min. Env.
  Rector UNU)
• More stakeholder consultations on activities
• Third workshop, 30 March 2006 - Mission, Vision,
  objectives, principles, structure, working groups
  established

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Working Structure

• Steering Committee
• Representatives of the founding stakeholders
• In addition each stakeholder group has to choose
  a representative, who has to report back to the
  stakeholder group gt represents a capacity
  building exercise
• Private Schools
• Public Schools
• Private Universities
• Public Universities
• Military Colleges
• Reports to the collective of the participating
  institutions in the RCE
• Meets every 1 month
• Has decision making power
• Stakeholders designate their support,
  participation and representative via a Memorandum
  of Understanding

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Working Structure II

• Secretariat to
• Facilitate inclusion of more stakeholders
• Facilitate communication between the stakeholders
  (e-group, newsletter)
• Builds website in cooperation with stakeholders
• Facilitate access to global learning space
• Create a knowledge base (actors, research, roster
  of experts, e-library)
• Working Groups
• Open for more stakeholders who are not in the
  steering committee
• Regularly report back to the steering committee
• Communicate via their own e-groups and website
  corner
• Financial Stability
• Will be established in the long term

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Prioritized Objectives I

• 1. Enhance and strengthen, evolve and co-create a
  space for communication, cooperation and
  knowledge sharing among all stakeholders involved
  in ESD
• 2. facilitate the integration of ESD into formal
  curriculum at schools and higher education
• 3. facilitate the integration of ESD into the
  informal educational sector
• 4. raise awareness for the best applicable
  knowledge and resources on SD
• 5. identify, promote, and utilize or replicate
  examples of appropriate practices in ESD
• 6. facilitate fundraising for ESD related
  activities

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Prioritized Objectives II

• 7. facilitate the development of high quality,
  preferably innovative teaching modules,
  evaluation testing modules, and materials for
  ESD and develop the capacity of human resources
  necessary to implement these modules and use the
  materials
• 8. facilitate collaborative research on ESD
• 9. facilitate dialogue to translate SD into a
  regional cultural context
• 10. facilitate multi-disciplinary thinking and
  education
• 11. facilitate voluntary contributions to RCE
  activities
• 12. Review, evaluate and improve the RCEs
  structures and activities on a regular basis

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Long-term Goal

• RCE-Jordan could serve as an example of good
  practice to other countries in the Middle East
  with similar cultural, political, religious,
  social and environmental backgrounds

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Guiding Principles

• Projects and programs supported by the RCE must
  be committed fully to
• environmental and social ethics
• equity between the environmental, social, and
  economic pillars of sustainable development
• coordination with various entities governmental,
  non-governmental, and local communities
• ensuring the sustainability of various activities
  or projects
• work on the basis of national policies
• benefiting from the best available applicable
  experiences, knowledge, and resources

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Immediate Working Groups

• Committee to identify good practice
• Mandate for this Working Group written by UNU
• Can start working in May
• RCE collaboration with Ministry of Education on
  changing the curriculum
• Members RSCN, JRF, IUCN, JU, HU, Public School
  Rep., Teacher, Student, Ministry of Education,
  Curriculum Department
• Media working group
• Establish a Media and Awareness Raising Strategy,
  bring together Media Reps of RCE members, perhaps
  organize a small conference
• Organize a high-level dialogue on translating
  concepts of SD to local cultural context
• Led by IUCN-WESCANA
• Deadline Next working meeting in May

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Immediate Working Groups II

• Funding and Proposal Writing Group
• Development of a Fund raising strategy
• Lead by the UNU-ILI, compiling International
  Funding overview
• RCE members to send information on local and
  regional funding sources
• Next meeting establishment of a funding group
• Awareness raising symposium
• Long term strategy working group
• Members JCPP, RSCN, Min. Env., JUST, JU, IUCN,
  JOHUD, Min. Higher Education, UNU-ILI

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Immediate Projects

• Taking complete stock of stakeholders and
  activities with the aim to create a database
• Lead by the UNU but everyone is evolved
• Deadline End of April
• Establish a communication structure consisting of
  E-Mail E-groups and a basic BLOG website
• Lead by UNU
• Deadline Before May
• Collect existing Education Materials on SD
• Everyone to write a little description for their
  materials, containing information on the original
  intent, target group, experiences made,
  distribution, availability, language, format
• Deadline rolling

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Ideas for future activities

• Field Days and 4 day Nature Camps
• TV for the Environment and Media Training
• Water Learning Course Materials for Children
• High Level Dialogue on SD
• Symposium on ISO 1400 for Industry
• Symposium on ESD in Jordan (100-200 part.)
• Teacher Training Manual
• Case Studies on ESD from IUCNs global
  conservation learning network
• examples of good practice of schools integrating
  ESD in their curriculum - award a price
• Research into where Quran supports Sustainable
  Development
• Research into traditional knowledge and practices
  for SD
• Greening the Campus Initiative

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Research Proposal for RCE GLS

• Research Group on Transformative Education in a
  cultural and religious context
• Who RCEs located in countries with a
  conservative religious background
• Why some RCE Jordan stakeholders voiced concern
  on offending cultural and religious customs by
  facilitating ESD (always sparks lively
  discussions and keeps coming up)
• Basis for ESD in the Middle East - a regional
  baseline study