Geography does has a vital role in developing children’s understanding of their place in our shared world (‘Place in the Sun’, TES , 18 April, 2003). Environmental change and sustainable development are rightly prominent within the subject. But education’s role in sustainable development needs to be explicit beyond geography, science or citizenship, beyond schools or the curriculum. A clear remit is required for all education agencies and policy-makers, backed up with resources for local support and training. Tony Blair has described sustainable development as the ‘greatest challenge of the 21st century’. The Government’s Sustainable Development Education Panel has presented a draft national strategy, ‘Learning to Last’, to Ministers, offering a framework for formal and informal learning to help meet the challenge. The Government should adopt the strategy and put education for sustainable development where it needs to be -nbsp;embedded throughout learning, professional practice and policy.

Tom Ryan,
Policy and Programmes Officer
Council for Environmental Education
Reading
www.cee.org.uk