Eswatini

Eswatini Change Project workshops will take place in 2021. In the meantime, teacher educators who are interested in starting work on ESD teacher education Change Projects can consult other examples from the projects being developed in participating countries and make contact with the UNESCO office to share their work.

We will also be sharing examples of earlier ESD Change Projects that were developed in Eswatini from the ESD alumni network.

News & Events

Inclusion of ESD in school curricula and activities on course

Stakeholders and participants of the Capacity-Building Programme on Education for Sustainable Development (CAP-ESD) met in Harare on 31st January 2020 to review their Change Projects. Change Projects are institutional change initiatives to support the integration of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into teacher education. Participants reviewed each other’s project presentations. They...

Change Project: Use of recycled materials to create instructional materials and to generate an income for the institution.

B. Dlamini, University of Eswatini

The ESD challenges recognised by the CoP was that there was a lot of waste on the campus; and that the change project needed to generate income for the University of Eswatini (UNESWA). They also noted that their project would contribute to the safe disposal of waste as defined by the Guidelines and Regulations of Waste Management of 2000 and entrenched in the Eswatini Environmental Management Act of 2002.

The CoP began by analysing the Mission statement, the policies and practices of the UNESWA on waste disposal; and by scrutinising the curriculum/s for gaps and opportunities for ESD. They decided to focus on upcycling papers, cardboard boxes, calendars, bottles and plastics. The objectives of the change project are stated below by Nonhlanhla Moletsane,

Cognitive: (i) Identify with the need to address issues of waste management; (ii) use waste sustainable development in education; and (iii) identify the opportunities to use waste in dealing with poverty related issues in education
Socio-emotional: (i) Understand the need to rope in all stakeholders in the ESD Change Project; and ability to collaborate in addressing the challenges posed by waste and poverty in the educational landscape.
Behavioural: Ability to appreciate, co-create and use waste material for the teaching and learning process; ability to use the instructional materials developed from recycled waste; and engage with the community in using the waste for the educational purposes

The roll-out of the change project was affected by Covid-19 and adjustments were made to the original plans. The CoP plan to vertically scale the change project by requesting policy amendments to include the use of waste materials; and to functionally scale it by producing instructional materials for sale; and to implement horizontally scaling by encouraging other departments to use their waste materials and by including the skills required for upcycling waste in the curriculum.

Change Project: Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities at Eswatini College of Technology (ECOT)

Bhekisisa J. Hlophe, Eswatini College of Technology

The ESD challenge identified by the CoP was that educators and students with disabilities were marginalised. The change project aimed at a whole-institution charge to “create a conducive working and learning environments for all in the college” (Thabo, 2022). The CoP elected to focus on partially sighted and deaf persons, those with physical impairments (wheel-chair bound and those using crutches or in other ways mobility bound, those who have upper limb challenges and persons of short stature). The change project would be accomplished through infrastructure modification, curriculum alignment and community awareness.

The CoP’s shared interpretation of sustainable development in their context was, “offering equal opportunities and equitable distribution of the benefits of TVET for the present and the future generations”; and ESD as “empowering of the learners and staff with knowledge, values and attitudes in as far as inclusion of all persons is concerned in our daily living” (Thabo, 2022). The CoP began by assessing the facilities of ECOT to decide where to begin. They drafted a comprehensive report which included the budget required to make these facilities inclusive. The focus was on the administration block and the hostel facilities. An application based upon the CoP’s recommendations was submitted to the Registrar’s Office. Challenges faced by the group were budgetary constraints, ICT network instability, and political unrest. Nonetheless, the CoP achieved the following:

The CoP secured a room with a WIFI connection which was a place to meet and work on the change project.
A successful workshop was arranged to heighten awareness and provoke action to improving inclusivity on the campus.
There was a curriculum review by ICT.
The female hostel was renovated.
The CoP managed to get national state approval for the renovation of all the male hostels.

The CoP are looking forward to the change project progressing with the renovations of the male hostels flowing from the governmental commitment to this project.

Change Project: Ngwane College Paperpreneurship for Sustainable Development

Khumalo CT, Ngwane Teachers College

The initial ESD challenge identified was that large quantities of waste of paper at the Ngwane College were burnt or thrown away. The CoP launched a change project to upcycle the paper into useful objects. In the course of the change project other ESD challenges become apparent which were firstly, that the student teachers need extra income on an on-going basis to support themselves and others; and secondly, that ESD was not included in the curriculum. The objectives of the change project were expanded to include an entrepreneurial element to the paper upcycling initiative; and ESD was incorporated into the first year curriculum.

The change project was achieved by incorporating the whole institution as described by Sicelo Masuku’s answer in an assignment question:

For example, the non-academic staff such as the groundsmen and cleaners were responsible for keeping the institution clean and disposing of papers in the correct rubbish bins. Lecturers were responsible for understanding the need to go beyond facts and figures and to translate knowledge into action and impact skills to the students so that students take recycled paper further. Moreover, for students, this change project equip them with art and craft skills of recycling paper while at the same time producing products that help to generate income and they become entrepreneurship. They also produce learning and teaching aids. Neighbouring schools also part of the community and they provide us with scrap paper so that the students continue making different finished products.

The first year curriculums for Fine Art, Social Studies and Education were redesigned to include ESD principles and practices. CoP members reported that the Posted Library and the engagement with other members and other change project CoPs were the most beneficial to them. Also reported by the CoP was a shift in their thinking towards sustainability, for example, seeing waste as valuable and as a potential income source. The next steps in this change project are to continue with paperpreneurship initiative as it is running and to expand to incorporate students with disabilities; to teach first year students according to the revised ESD-inclusive curriculum; and to develop a Green Office Policy for the Ngwane Teachers’ College.