Zim educators champion SDG learning in schools

By Sihlobo Bulala

Zimbabwean educators, part of the Global Schools Program network, are championing the incorporation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their teaching practice as a way of fostering a deeper understanding of global issues and a development of skills needed for students to become agents of sustainable initiatives within their localities.

The Global Schools’ flagship initiative, the Global Schools Advocates Program, is a cohort-style program for educators and global school leaders who want to integrate themes of sustainable development into their classrooms. Available in 107 countries globally, the Global Schools Program has advocates in African countries such as Zimbabwe, Angola, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, and South Africa, etc.

Speaking in an interview with Community Podium, Global Schools Program Communications Project Lead, Stacy Nyathi highlighted that the program seeks to enhance the skills needed by teachers to adequately promote Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in classrooms.

“The Global Schools Advocates Program was born out of the realisation that while young people need to be equipped with the skills and knowledge to deal effectively with the world’s challenges, teachers are uniquely positioned to impart the knowledge and the skills at primary and secondary level. However, most teachers themselves lack guidance on how to integrate SDGs into their teaching,” she said.

Getrude F Ziracha, a Zimbabwean high school teacher and a 2025 Global Schools Advocates Program Alumni highlighted that after the training she was empowered to fit ESDs into the values taught in her school and to engage her students who have since initiated new projects for an environmental club consisting of girls between 12 and 18 years.

“The girls identified problematic areas in and outside of school including that students leave the school vehicles littered when they travel which meant taking responsibility to monitor the cleaning of the vehicles,” she said.

As an environmental club, they have donated and planted trees, taken charge of waste management issues in the school through sorting out litter where recyclable materials can then be forwarded to recycling companies and through starting a school compost.

“Since I joined the Global Schools Program, I have since spread my wings in the school. I have noted with satisfaction that my students even caution and remind each other about the good values of not wasting food, not littering, etc. This is very important because if the impact is positive like that then we know it will spread and together we would have taken baby steps to try save and serve the world,” she said.

Sarah Santillan-Isern, a Global Schools Program Project Officer and a 5th grade teacher at Harare International School highlighted that since being an advocate in 2023, she has played a key role in initiating a range of sustainability focused activities, both in the classroom and at the whole-school level.

“The Global Schools Advocates Program has allowed my advocacy journey to promote sustainable development education in Zimbabwe by nurturing globally-minded students who engage meaningfully with their local context. For example, our students have explored issues like climate action, drawing connections between global challenges and their impact on Zimbabwean communities,” she highlighted.

Noting that their learners have also participated in inquiry-based units aligned with the SDGs, where they examined wildlife conservation efforts, developing a deeper understanding of how their actions contribute to animal welfare in Zimbabwe, Sarah further highlighted how they have valued community engagement in their learning.

“Community is your best stakeholder. As a school, its best to begin with your own community, learners, parents, admin. From there, the action goes beyond and this is simply by showing or demonstrating learned behaviors. As an example, students have taken initiatives to address waste management. As they do this at school, they also transfer and apply the actions at home and neighborhoods. Though it may sound small, the influence can reach furthere,” she said.

The interaction with the Global Schools Program Advocates highlighted that the integration of SDGs into student learning not only allows students to develop critical thinking and solution-finding skills, but the experience also exposes them to both local and global perspectives. This was highlighted as a tool that can empower students to connect their education to real-world issues, inspiring meaningful, lifelong civic engagement and needs to be championed by all stakeholders including policy makers, government, civic organizations, local communities and youth activists, among others.