Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) - The awareness connection between parents and students

Education is the best medium to disseminate education for sustainable development, ESD, to the general public. Currently, most environmental awareness programmes do seek to educate the public on environment, economic and social aspects of a more sustainable way of life. In Malaysia, for example, Sustainable Schools Programme of Environmental Award (SLAAS) was introduced for such purpose. This study examines the mutual relationship between parental and children awareness of ESD given their varied urban and rural background. A total of 243 students and 243 parents or guardians involved in the SLAAS provided the primary data for analysis. The results showed that in terms of ESD behaviour urban parents/guardians scored better than their rural counterparts. There was a significant relationship between student (children) knowledge of the SLAAS programme and of the content of ESD with parental / guardian knowledge of ESD. On the contrary, the students’ knowledge of the ESD pratices, attitude and behaviour bore no significant relationships with parental / guardian knowledge of ESD. The study also found a significant relationship between parental / guardian ESD behaviour with the student (children) ESDknowledge, pratices and attitude. These findings meant that not all variables of students’ ESD awareness had direct relationships with parental / guardian ESD knowledge and behaviour. The implication is that although apparent, the relationship between the students’ ESD knowledge and behaviour with of those of their parents / guardians was not established fully. In other words, government’s effort to improve ESD knowledge among the community must be carried out more systematically and continuously. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that the students’involvement with the SLAAS programme was a positive beginning towards exposing ESD to their families.