Package Learning Materials on Environment (PLANET)Review & Sharing WorkshopPLANET Workshop - Sustainability of PLANET Programme
PLANET Workshop - Sustainability of PLANET Programme
A decade has passed since the PLANET programme was first launched in 1997, and now the programme is picking up the momentum to move for a better programme with a larger impact, with growing resources and expectations including the following factors:
- Expertise and experience of PLANET executive organisations
- Commitment by those organizations and their partners
- Mina as a “brand” established
- Interests expressed by potential partners in the Region
- Continued and increasing interest in PLANET 1 “Water”, PLANET 2 “Forest” and PLANET 3 “Waste Management”
- High expectation growing for PLANET 4 “Disaster Preparedness”
- United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD, 2005-2014) with UNESCO designated as a lead agency
In particular, the launch of UNDESD in 2005 provided a new opportunity for PLANET use, and, in response, the PLANET series has been reoriented as ESD teaching-learning materials. This is not just due to the themes of environment education which the PLANET packages have been dealing with, but also because of interactive and participatory teaching-learning approaches, which the packages make possible, truly coincide with the principles that underlie ESD. Thus, it can be safely said that the PLANET programme is at a very good stage for further development. Following are some points raised from discussion on the sustainability of PLANET initiatives.
PRINCIPLES of SUSTAINABILITY
- Continuous, endogenous process, where ownership is important
- Matching the local needs, which are subject to change over time
- Culture of maintenance
- 3A: Awareness raising; Attitude change; and Action implementation
- 3H: Head, Heart and Hands
PROTOTYPES
- Need to update
- Different level of texts for different targets
LOCAL VERSIONS
<Partnership>- Teamwork within UNESCO, vis-à-vis UN and other international and local agencies
- Make the most of mass media (newspaper, poster, banner, community radio’s daily announcement, etc., from PLANET programme)
- Integrate in existing educational curriculum
- Incorporate the materials into other existing ESD promotional materials and programmes at the local, national and international levels
- Plan within the framework of respective national plans
- Integrate into existing programmes in Formal, Non-formal and Informal Education
- Involve like-minded People’s Organisations, local NGOs and International NGOs
- Financial support from the Government
- Formulation and implementation if laws and policies by legislative and local government
- Training and workshop to ensure the materials’ utilisation
- Skills training in monitoring and evaluation
- Use as an entry point to the topics
- “Mina” as a brand
- ACCU to reconsider PLANET-related guidelines, to be better embedded with other issues and realities of partner organisations
- Effective monitoring and evaluation to get feedback and improve the programme
- Qualified, well-trained teachers/facilitators/instructors to use the materials
- Need good performers
- Follow-up activities by learners and community people
- “PLANET School”
- Adaptation to minority languages by learners and/or teachers of the minority group themselves