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During the historical earth summit which was held in Roi de Janeiro, the topic
sustainable development was emphasize due to alarming situations and problems of
the world along poverty and environment. Under the agenda 21 which was created by
the UN education is one of the answers to reduce the growing problems. Education will
promote environmental respect and care, it will serve also as a tool to elevate people
from poverty. Due to poverty and the rapid increase in population most of the
developing countries have problems in human needs, consumption and production.
Because of these the environment is pushed to its limits. The severe effect on the
environment, society and to the coming generations will further increase because of
wrong ways we treat the earth. Its resources will continue to decrease due to improper
consumption of present human generation leaving the future generation more problems,
less natural resource, and more importantly paralyzing them in obtaining their needs.

The fast growing population makes old problems such as poverty, starvation,
crimes, pollution, waste and depletion of resources are just getting worst. And new
problems concerning health and global warming tend to elevate. It seems that to protect
the needs of the future generation and to meet our needs there must be a balance in
the activities of humans and to the environment we are living in. Sustainable
development should be imposed to counteract these growing problems and assure the
improvement in the quality of life in the present and future generations.

In response, the UN general assembly assigned UNESCO (United Nations

Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) to lead the DESD (Decade on
Educational for Sustainable Development). The framework of UNESCO emphasizes on
three major keys for EDS that is; society, environment, and economy with culture as the
underlying dimension.
 DESD focuses on inculcating values and respect to humans. Respect for others,
environment, present and future generation, difference and diversity, resources of the
planet. If these values are truly installed in the mind of the people fewer problems in
many aspects will tend to occur and a safer world will await the future people.

Education will play a vital role in the success of the DESD. It is said that most of
the knowledge and skills of an individual came from his education that is why integrating
or putting ESD along side of education is a must. The ideas and objectives of ESD will
be cemented in the minds of the people if it is learned or obtained in the process of
education. That is why I think the government should create find new ways in improving
the quality of education in our country if sustainable development is to be achieved.

The success of DESD will depend on the stakeholders concern. The

stakeholders determine the outcome of the ESD, it is important to know that everyone is
a stakeholder or beneficiary of ESD. The consequence of DESD will change or affect
everyone¶s life that is why awareness to sustainable development should be done and
active participation and faithfulness to its objectives is a must.

In response to the UNESCO¶s DESD the government created the Philippine

agenda 21 (PA 21) ³the national agenda for sustainable development for the 21st
century´. The PA 21 will serve as the link in the United Nations agreement concerning
sustainable development uplifting the country from various problems such as poverty,
pollution, etc. PA 21 is also a layout plan in how to promote sustainable development.
Along the PA 21, the government, business and civil society agreed to implement or
propose action plans for sustainable development in our country. The heart or center of
their plan will be in the fields of economy, policy, and culture.

Under the documents of the CHED¶s Region V Director, Dr. Peralta mentioned
that sustainable development can be achieved through education. The law in our
country will provide its citizens with quality education to promote good life and to sustain
the needs of the present and future. Mr. Peralta cited different activities under formal,
non-formal and informal education to promote sustainable development in our country.

Education has no doubt to be one of the best tool in promoting sustainable

development that is why the government is investing a lot in various branch in education
specially science and technology and ICT, because these field of education is the
backbone of a developing country and it is also a bridge to globalization.

Under formal education in the document of Mr. Peralta several activities are cited
to promote care in the environment; peace and awareness of the people to their social
rights and responsibilities as a citizen. People should have an easy access to tertiary
education since most of the courses offered by these schools contribute to the
sustainable development of our country. Values such as love and respect should also
be one of the concerns of tertiary education to enhance the nature of our citizen.
These are a great campaign of the CHED encouraging people to protect our
natural resources and social rights. Access and awareness to human rights, peace and
human security are some of the perspectives of ESD that is why promoting this concept
to the people will surely help them in attaining sustainable development. The activities
stated in the document in obtaining sustainable development in formal education are
minimal such as outreach programs, eco-park endorsements, awareness campaign,
and environmental help programs. CHED should create more programs, activities and
campaign about social rights, environment, peace, etc. in massive scale (national) in
such a way more people would benefit from it.

Under non-formal education, he cited different laws and acts that support quality
education to all the people of the country especially the out of school youths.
Encouraging the citizen to be literate and productive thus reducing the poverty cases/
extension programs is also being done to serve the needs of poor community. There
are many laws concerning education but very few is stated in non-formal education,
further a small number of organizations are involve such as KALAHI and HEI. The
government should take more actions in helping the community through non-formal
education.

The document also emphasizes ICT, which is very important especially if we

want to attain Philippines as a globally competitive country. ICT serves a major
instrument in modern word because of this our lifestyle, business, work and education
has change rapidly in ways we never imagine. I think ICT will serve as a bridge in ESD,
since a lot of educational courses now a day is inclined with ICT. I hope that the
government will keep funding more activities and opportunities in this particular field if
we want to be globally recognized.

The paper of Dr. Peralta emphasized more on education, and courses alongside
which is crucial to the economic needs of the Philippines but not much on the
sustainable development. It mentioned very few programs in environmental protection
and awareness, social rights and responsibilities, formal education, non-formal
education, and informal education. It has very few activities that would support ESD,
further more it lacks some areas in the framework of UNESCO¶s DESD such as society
and culture. It is not enough to say that through education alone society will prosper and
culture will be preserved. It also lacks some key points in the PA 21. The paper of Dr.
Peralta hardly or very briefly discusses some programs about poverty reduction, social
equity, empowerment and good governance, and ecological integrity. Looking at the
framework of UNESCO under ³spaces of learning´ the document of Dr. Peralta truly
conforms to it providing action plans and programs to different forms of education, but
looking under economic, socio-cultural and environmental perspective it is evident that
so many key areas are missing or even no statement is done and a very small number
of programs are indicated along economic and socio-cultural perspective.

The DepEd memorandum no. 52 s. 2006 a three page memo by the Department
of Education serves as a link or response to the PA 21 of the Philippines and
UNESCO¶s DESD. The memorandum includes the ideas about the human rights,
gender equality, and education. It has very minimal statements and features about
sustainable development. The memo was more like an order to the DepEd, TESDA,
and CHED in addressing the required educational skills needed by the people to be
knowledgeable about the sustainable development. The said memo lacks a lot of ideas
and key points in parallel to the DESD, environment, economy, society, and culture was
not very well elaborated.

The DepEd should pay more attention or place more importance in ESD. It
should promote more programs and activities that will support the idea of sustainable
development. We are currently fighting a lot of problems to our society and one of the
biggest is how to reduce poverty. Solving these problems requires more than just
propagation of information, we must take ESD more seriously to see the big picture.

Under the document presented by the DENR, their major focus is in the field of
education. Sustainable development can be achieved through proper education of the
citizen and access to right knowledge would promote good values and attitudes which in
turn will reflect in our society and environment. DENR also mention some cross cutting
actions which will give way to new program, network and linkage campaign, community
outreach, and training. These cross cutting actions would further increase the people¶s
knowledge and idea of attaining sustainable development.

It was also mentioned that education for sustainable concerns should be

integrated in the lessons in the elementary and secondary. Provide teachers with
adequate tools, guide lessons and materials for sustainable development. This is a
good move of the DENR strengthening their bonds to the community and providing it
with knowledge and awareness about education. DENR also focuses on environmental
programs which is crucial because of the improper consumption of community leading
to more poverty. I think the paper presented by the DENR is hopeful if it is to be
implemented in a straight away. Especially in their campaigns about integrating ESD in
lessons in elementary and education because students will never see the connection of
sustainable development in their life unless it is inculcated in their minds.
 It was also mentioned that environmental education should be a component in
accrediting colleges and university this program of is good because tertiary schools
should be more caring along the side of environment. It was further mentioned that the
local government should be actively involved in sustainable development, thus providing
the community people with seminars and workshops along the right approaches in
resources and environmental management. Business programs were also in the list, it is
said that this program would create new employment and more jobs which will decrease
the burden in poverty. Along the business sectors they¶re going to integrate safe
environmental programs, since a lot of big company today threatens the environment in
their own new ways to practice business without harming the environment should be
made. Trying to look at the key areas of DESD which are environment, society, and
economy, I can see that DENR is actively creating programs in these areas to
encourage sustainable development in our country.

Looking at the DENR¶s framework in ESD it is evident that the center of their
many programs is inclined with education and environment. They also anchored their
programs along the key areas of DESD which will help the community in fighting
poverty. Further, it is good that a lot of the programs of DENR lays emphasis on
environment, community, teachers, local governments, and economy because these
fields or components in our society is inclined to UNESCO¶s framework of DESD.

The document did not proposed any action plans or programs about culture and
then the indigenous people, I think these two components in the society are important
and should be taken preserve. The indigenous people are the ones which I think the
experts in protecting the forest and animals along with it. Since they¶re the ones who
know very well about the forest, their protection should be one of the lists along the
environmental programs of the government.

Presentation done by NEDA in connection to sustainable development only

discussed a fraction of the DESD, elaborated the key terms of the PA 21, and new
approach in updating the PA 21. Looking at the presentation of NEDA most of its
features made very little advance environmental action, economic growth, and good
governance which is the important areas in UNESCO¶s DESD. Alongside in the
environmental action of NEDA it only cited some ecosystems which should be in the list
for protection against exploitation of its resources. The presentation also made few
programs in ecological integrity such as dissemination of information in line with
sustainable development, advocacy programs, implementing laws along biotechnology.
More programs concerning environment should be done, because it is not enough to
just implement laws and broadcast environmental issues in the TV or radio to protect
our environment. Active programs outreach, and proper education should also be done
to the local people to actively take part in the care and protection of our natural
resources. Although the PA 21 was completely tackled in the presentation the action
plans along with it was not thoroughly discussed especially the details on how to
achieve those programs. Poverty reduction was mentioned but it only focused in the
welfare of the workers, it does not have a concrete solution on how to solve poverty. A
lot of NEDA¶s plan in association to PA 21 should be restructured or reevaluated to
attain sustainable development.

The action step of NEDA about trade and globalization is a good step in making
our country globally competitive. It is a better plan to integrate ICT in lessons and
curriculum in such a way that students will be more efficient in handling modern
technologies and will be prepared to new jobs nowadays that is in line with IT. The
question is; is it attainable?, with the current problems being handled by our country
such as poverty and depletion of our natural resources less budget is allocated in ICT.
ICT should be in list of top priorities of the government for us to be internationally
competitive.

Focusing our attention to the Philippine Agenda 21 (PA 21) the key terms in
upholding sustainable development in our country are as follows: (1) poverty reduction
(2) social equity (3) empowerment and good governance (4) peace and solidarity (5)
ecological integrity. These ³key terms´ are the highlights of the program concerns in
DENR, CHED, and DepEd. A lot of developed programs for environmental awareness
and protection, gender equity, and social rights are just some of many in promoting
sustainable development in our country and also to reduce national problems like
poverty etc. The question still remains are the key terms in PA 21 inclined with the ³key
terms´ in UNESCO¶s DESD framework. Reviewing the framework of UNESCO the key
terms are as follows: (1) overcoming poverty (2) gender equality (3) health promotion
(4) environmental conservation and protection (5) rural transformation (6) human rights
(7) intercultural understanding and peace (8) sustainable production and consumption
(9) cultural diversity and (10) information and communications technologies. Comparing
them both; the PA 21 and UNESCO¶s DESD, it seems that there are a lot of missing key
terms or points in the PA 21. The reason is unknown to me, maybe if the government
would follow all the key terms in UNESCO it may need a lot of preparation and may
affect the current activities different agencies in our government. Maybe the government
is taking it slowly but surely step by step in such a way the most important problems in
our nation are taken first in to consideration. Still a lot is missing under PA 21 most
importantly cultural diversity, because in our country vast number of culture is present
but slowly decreasing. Another is sustainable production and consumption, the problem
with production of food in our country is that most of our farmers don¶t have easy access
in the market and lack of security of land to be farmed. These problems render the
people in the rural community to abandon farming and going to urban communities to
look for another job. This possesses great treat to our economy, there is no more
balance to rural and urban community. In terms of consumption because of the growing
population and the problem with poverty people tend to exploit the environment creating
more problems. Also positive values should be inculcated in every programs of the
government under ESD to assure that the stakeholders will yield a strong respect to
every aspect of life. The PA 21 should be restructured and should be evaluated further
to identify its strengths and weaknesses, thus appropriate actions will be made to the
important problems of our country.

Under the different agencies in our government such as CHED, DepEd, NEDA,
and DERN have proposed a lot of programs and action plans which aims for
sustainable development. It is good that the implementation of these programs contains
strategies under the UNESCO¶s framework such as advocacy and vision building;
partnership and networks; capacity building and training; research and innovation;
information and communication technologies.

Every branch of the government should be actively participating in ways to

promote sustainable development. The different agencies of our government specially
alongside the economy, environment and polity should work closely or side by side to
achieve sustainable development, maybe the reason why most of their presentation or
action plans are not fully in line with the framework of UNESCO is that they have not yet
consider all the stakeholders and important factors that affects sustainable development
in our country. They should thoroughly examine or update the PA 21 in such a way that
the goals under the DESD by UNESCO would be attained in the correct time. Overall
the Philippines is still crawling in the dark or has not taken DESD seriously.