A launching seminar

On December 17, 2019, a launching seminar on “Promoting Sustainable Lifestyle by creating a network of sustainable schools” project was held in the State Agency of the Environmental Protection and Forestry under the government of the Kyrgyz Republic.

The initiative was made possible with the support of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, which is currently conducting a Global Search for Sustainable Schools project in 9 countries around the world, in accordance with the concept note for the 10YFP* Sustainable Lifestyles and Education Programme.

The goal of the Global search for sustainable schools is to promote the ideas and principles of sustainable development, sustainable consumption and production, education for sustainable development, the formation of green thinking at the level of primary and secondary schools and institutions of primary vocational education. The initiative in Kyrgyz Republic is coordinated by SAEPF.

There are several stages in implementing the Global Search for Sustainable Schools project:

The first stage is the development of the national project search criteria for the competition and communication campaign.

The second stage is for calling out schools to submit their applications or activity plans on how to best integrate sustainable lifestyles into the everyday school activities. Environmental education materials will be developed in parallel.

The third stage is the selection process among schools with the best plans for the pilot implementation.

The fourth stage is the actual implementation of the delivered school plans.

The initiative aims to improve the ability of educational institutions to develop and integrate the environmental thinking principles into their schools through the education. In order to achieve the goal, it is planned to involve teachers and young students to actively participate in the implementation of the environmental education in their schools, as well as encouraging behaviors and practices that are relevant to the 12 th Sustainable Goal, which is the Sustainable Consumption and Production. 

Criteria for searching sustainable schools has been developed earlier and the process of collecting applications from schools has been started earlier and ended on November 30, 2019 at 18.00.

An order has been issued by the SAEPF (No. 01-9/321 of 9.12.2019) and the competition commission was formed in order to deliver a fair and objective consideration of the received applications. During the two days the Competition Commission has reviewed 73 applications received from schools, colleges and professional lyceums from all regions of the Kyrgyz Republic (Table 1).

Number of received applications separated by region, Table 1.

The submitted applications were differed by the quality of the application filling: some were with only a table filled, some were with the missing answers for certain questions or even missing blocks of questions. There were also some completely filled applications, but the answers to certain questions were unambiguous, which did not give the full picture of current school activities for an objective assessment. The competition Commission held the selection meetings for 2 days, including non-working hours (in the evening, since the amount of the received applications was big).

Only 44 applications were considered for further assessment out of 73 received applications due to the lack of answers.

During the further assessment, 14 not fully filled applications out of 44 were found and excluded.

  Thus, the Commission has considered only 30 applications that were filled completely.

26 applications out of 30 considered for evaluation, were lack of full answers and did not give a full picture of the situations in schools for the further assessment. Thus, the Competition Commission has identified 4 schools that fully responded to the application criteria.

The selection Protocol was signed by all members of the Competition Committee. 

Thus, as a result of the national initiative, the principles of sustainability will be integrated in the management plan of certain schools. Principles of sustainability will be taught on the basis of the training manuals for teachers and students, which are developed by the expert group. All mentioned above will lead to the improvement of the environmental education quality in schools, help to increase the amount of students that are aware of existing environmental problems in the society and are able to asses some issues and environmental problems, as well as to participate in solving those issues on different levels from the Sustainable Consumption and Production perspective.

The main reason for the launch of the Global Search for Sustainable Schools project was the global and local environmental problems, that have been caused by the growth of the World population, growth of consumers, a negative active impact on the climate, loss of biodiversity, etc.

The main reason for the launch of the Global Search for Sustainable Schools project was the global and local environmental problems, that have been caused by the growth of the World population, growth of consumers, a negative active impact on the climate, loss of biodiversity, etc.

List of Sustainable School winner:

1. Educational complex of school-gymnasium №69 named after T. Satylganov, Bishkek
2. Budenovskaya secondary school, Chui region
3. Educational secondary School named after Barat Zhunusov, Talas Region
4. Secondary school named after Tugoluu uulu Usupbek, Naryn Region.

The next step is developing school curriculums and implementation budgets, as well as the practical implementation of responsible consumption and production activities in the Sustainable School winner schools, as well as the development towards the sustainability in their educational institutions at certain levels of the program.

In the meantime, the capacity and potential for the sustainable schools’ integration and support by the developing of the environmental education materials will be strengthening. An awareness-raising campaign will be developed and implemented in order to encourage participation in the project and in a sustainable way of life.

*SLE 10YFP - The Sustainable Lifestyles and Education Programme is one of six programmes within the 10 Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production led by UNEP. The SLE programme is co-led by Sweden, through Stockholm Environment Institute and Japan, through the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies.