From the UN Summit to the Kazakh National Commission for UNESCO and ISESCO

The September 2022 UN Summit gave impetus, reinforcing UNESCO`s work on education for sustainable development, or ESD. In January 2023, the UNESCO Chair in Pedagogy and Teacher Training at KazNPU named after Abai held an international webinar on the transformation of higher education (a separate publication in the "Educated Country" newspaper https://bilimdinews.kz/?p=227498). The meetings of the UNESCO Chair in Pedagogy and Teacher Training with management and teaching staff of institutes on the transformation of the education system for sustainable development took place in March (March 3-10, 2023). The institutes that participated in the meetings were introduced to extremely important UN and UNESCO activities for understanding global education developments. Here are a few of them: The International Seminar on Increasing Awareness on Education for Sustainable Development "Transforming Education: Co-ordination, Design and Implementation", organized by the Kazakhstan National Federation of UNESCO Clubs, was held on April 3-4, 2023, at the United Nations in Almaty. A separate publication will be devoted to the results of the event.

Two other important events were held on April 4, 2023: 1) Thematic meeting of the Kazakhstan National Commission for UNESCO and ISESCO on the evaluation of the implementation of the UNESCO Medium-Term Strategy in Kazakhstan and 2) Sub-regional meeting of ESD-net 2030 in Central Asia (online). The proceedings of the sub-regional meeting can be accessed at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-vY6I06c5KLM8XXs4Rsp-MzQcqk7hGZX?usp=share_link.

One of the important remarks of the Chairman of the National Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan for UNESCO and ISESCO, State Advisor of the RK E.Karin was addressed to representatives of UNESCO organizations, state bodies and educational organizations: the need to set the right priorities. It means that certificates, ratings, reports and other ways of demonstration of successful work are not an end in itself. The goal is to achieve results. When it comes to the preservation of World Heritage Sites, not listing is not an end in itself. The goal is the preservation of cultural monuments through restoration, compliance with preservation conditions, educating the younger generation.

Continuing with the idea of priorities, the quality of education for sustainable development is not measured by reports and diplomas, but by the quality of thinking and actions of the students, their behaviour and decisions.

For a better understanding of the ideas of transforming education for SDGs, we recommend an article by Director Sobhi Tawil and Charlene Kamil, Associate Expert, UNESCO Division for the Future of Learning and Innovation, "Renewing Education to Transform the Future: Critical Perspectives from the Transformative Education Summit", which was published on 20 March 2023 on the UNESCO website: https://en.unesco.org/futuresofeducation/ideas-lab/renewing-education-transform-future.