Education Policies as Entry Point into Sustainability

Quality Education was adopted as one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 during the historic UN Summit. What has been recognised over the years is the interdependence of the SDGs on each other. Education, as a starting point and lever for SDG understanding, can serve as an important bedrock and entry point towards sustainability. The Global South is increasingly being posed with the questions of sustainability, as it plays a twofold catch with the Global North: i) trying to meet the development standards of the Global North, and ii) trying to do so by new, sustainable methods as opposed to fossil-fuel-heavy development. This question at the heart of this debate has been a subject of controversy, but what most parties acknowledge today is the importance of a shared responsibility towards a safer future. Education can, in this context, act as a peephole to the impact of sustainable development, and education as a springboard to not only create sustainability consciousness, but also to create a chain effect towards other SDGs. This interrelation that will be explored through this panel becomes even more relevant to the global discourse in the way that it seeks to go multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary in its approach to data and theories. The panel will aim to explore if and how Quality Education as a variable impacts other SDGs. Secondly, it will aim to find these linkages through available evidence, developing theoretical understanding. Thirdly, it will aim to draw inferences from this understanding and come up with workable solutions towards leveraging the levers of education to impact and boost progress on other SDGs.