WESSA Schools Programme Impact Report 2020

21st Century Skills Development 21st century skills development through environmental learning was a big focus for the 2019 academic year. Our WESSA Schools Programme particularly contributed to teachers and learners further developing their project-based learning and problem-based learning skills.

This focus on skills development ensures the sustainability of action and behaviour change for a better and more environmentally aware society, but it also significantly contributes to the holistic development of the learners who participate in our programmes. One of our young reporters in the YRE programme was applauded for his article on pollution in his community and received an Honourable Mention International Award, making all the South African young reporters very proud. Teachers across South Africa have expressed that it is not just the practical and extended learning processes the WESSA Schools

Programme brings that leads to success, but the professional development through peers and experts that makes the journey towards holistic sustainable learning worthwhile. In 2019, one of our teachers, using her school’s environmental projects as evidence, entered and won the Secondary Leadership Category in the Department of Basic Education’s National Teachers Awards (NTA). Our impact at a school transformation level has become more sophisticated by directly responding to and addressing environmental, social and economic challenges in

communities. We have worked hard to link environmental action projects to the learners’ everyday lived realities that prevent them from living a dignified and fulfilled life. Education, including environmental education, has become an important driving force behind reaching the sustainable development goals by 2030. As the WESSA Schools Programme, our commitment to inclusive and holistic environmental education and learning has created a well- established journey for South African children to actively take part in driving global transformation at grassroots level.

Figure 2: The environmental learning journey the WESSA Schools Programme created for South African children

Building a better South Africa through environmental learning

Teachers, learners and the WESSA Schools Programme team have become a community of practice working towards learning about, learning through and learning for the environment to help solve problems we face. 2019 has created a solid foundation for the WESSA Schools Programme to launch into a new decade of positively contributing to building a better South Africa through environmental learning.

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