Abstract:
Education for Sustainable Development(ESD) is an approach to
teaching and learning based on the ideals and principles that underlie that
underlie sustainability. This study attempts to reveal the constrains and
strategies for addressing these challenges in the ESD implementation
process through the subject of Science at junior secondary level. Principals
and 136 Science teachers from 58 secondary schools in the northern
province of Srilanka participated as the survey sample.
The results illustrate that most of the school are not only struggling with
student related issues but that the most of the schools have to also tackle
other issues including issues related to science curriculum and resources.
Problems faced by students, such as low basic literacy ,poor attendance at
school, low interest in studying at school and at home, disciplinary
problem and inadequate awareness about the importance of science
among the students and parents were noted. Science teachers identified
the problems related to curriculum such as the examination-oriented
nature of the curriculum, the load of content, inappropriate pedagogy,
subjective and in-depth contents, inadequate time for some competencies
and the reality of the competency levels, some concepts being difficult to
understand and results of prescribed ‘activities’ not being mentioned in the
science text books. There are also several problems related to schools such
as inadequacy of resources in the science laboratory, shortage of welltrained teachers also identified. Science teachers and school principals
proposed several suggestions in the survey for improving junior secondary
science curriculum, pedagogy, resources and school community.
Keywords : Education for Sustainable Development, Challenges, Science, Junior
Secondary Level, Srilanka
