Pilot light

Dubai's first sustainable schools trial is under way - but are schools ready for the change?

New schools built to green standards. A curriculum which embraces environmental sustainability. And, most important of all, a community which not only recognises but also instigates environmental initiative. That is the vision of Fatma Al Marri, CEO of the Schools Agency at the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) in Dubai.
To bring this vision to fruition, KHDA has launched Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), a pilot project involving seven public schools. The aim is to promote environmental sustainability within the curriculum, and to eventually use school buildings as a microcosm of what can be achieved outside their walls.

By December this year, ESD will have developed environmental policies addressing each component of KHDA's remit, including inspections, information communication technology (ICT) and strategic development.

Last year, Al Marri travelled with her team to Germany and the UK to visit sustainable schools, and to meet with experts on integrating environmental issues within curricula. She then came back to Dubai, determined to get her pet project off the ground.

The pilot schools have now been chosen, and ESD will kick into action after Ramadan. "Implementation is through special programmes," explains Al Marri. Environment clubs within the schools will serve as a platform for inter-school competitions and conservation awards, while existing school buildings will be changed to be more sustainable.

But sustainability education is no longer just about clean-up campaigns or recycling. "It's beyond that now," says Al Marri.

"It's about research, about being as innovative as you can, about capacity-building, so that the environment will cut through economic and social issues. That's what sustainability is all about."

Training teachers to recognise and practise sustainability in their classrooms will also be crucial. The ESD project has already trained 35 teachers in a scheme accredited by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and plans for scores more in the future. Partnerships with local, regional and international environmental organisations will also focus on training.

KHDA has joined the UNEP Task Force on Education for Sustainable Consumption and the UNEP International Task Force on Sustainable Lifestyles in a bid to offer its teachers a wider scope of training. "We are the only Arab education authority....no, the only Arab government there," says Al Marri.

2009 will further see the establishment of the first annual ESD forum, which will "come up with innovative, up-to-date, capacity-building programmes to engage teachers," she continues. The forum will also provide a space where teachers can meet and exchange ideas.

In time, Marri plans for teachers, students and principals of the pilot schools to train each other. "I want to start a network within the schools. We can provide support and logistics, but I want teachers to train each other, I want families to talk to each other." Within five years, Al Marri wants children in Dubai to go to school in sustainable buildings.

"We will start putting students in an atmosphere where they will start building the right behaviour, which they will transfer to their homes." Environmental sustainability will also link in to the national curriculum, and will encompass all subjects. "It has to be a whole effort from everybody, but in five years we will be able to do a lot," says Al Marri.

She is aiming high, but has realistic expectations of the job ahead of her. "We're trying to do things the right way," she says, "so we're really organised, we're trying to find out what the market is like, we're collecting data and engaging people. We know it's a good cause, but honestly, we want to know whether it will work or not, that's why we're starting with the pilot schools. Maybe it won't work in Dubai, maybe we're wrong."

The choice of public schools to pilot the ESD project has made her job a little easier, she admits. "The cultural background, the language, and the religion are all the same. We can engage national identity and national pride."

The real challenge to bringing about tangible change in attitudes will be seen once the project extends to private schools. Motivating people of different cultures to come together and focus on a set of universal goals, Al Marri says, will be difficult, but she is confident she is starting in the right place.

"It's within the whole community; it's about how all people behave in the street and in their homes. Wherever you look you will find environmental issues, but I think the right point to start is with the schools. From there we can make an impact throughout the whole community."

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