Education For Sustainable Development, The UN GC PRME Initiative and the Sustainability Literacy Test: Measuring and Assessing Success

This article is concerned with how we educate the next generations to a level that they do understand the grave issues that will confront them as they cross in to the second half of the 21st century. If they are to alter the way that economic growth is assessed, then new measures of performance need to envisioned and implemented; capital markets need to incentivise “good” behavior”; and politicians need to be prepared to make difficult decisions, which may not always be popular with the public at large. If the current generation of students are to play these roles, it would be useful to have insight into their level of understanding of the issues. As we shall explore below, a huge effort has been made to prioritize education for sustainable development, but we know little of the effectiveness of this activity. This article addresses an initiative that specifically tests this progress.