Sustainable Development Goals Training for World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP) Members

Kofi Kwakye Takyi, Moses J. Y. Gemeh, and Godwin Doe, from the Ghana Commission for UNESCO (GCU), trained members of the World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP) on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and how to incorporate them into lessons and school-based projects on Wednesday, November 17^th, 2021. About forty people including, Mrs Lydia Sarfo Anno, the OMEP president in Ghana attended the program, which took place at The McCarthy Hill School in Accra, a UNESCO ASPnet School.

The GCU’s outreach programme provided a chance for OMEP members to learn about the goals of each SDG. Through discussions, members emphasized that it is essential to get learners in pre-tertiary schools to not only know about the SDGs, but also to begin to find school and community level solutions to the SDGs.

Mr. Gemeh, during the session, emphasized the importance of education in achieving all of the SDGs, stressing the necessity to include the SDGs into lessons and school-based programs. He highlighted the significance of meeting current needs without jeopardizing future generations’ ability to meet their own. The participants examined, among other things, the notion that sustainability centres around the human being and that we must train learners to create a self-sustaining environment in which to live. In the quest for global sustainability, the environmental, social, and economic components must all be given equal weight.

Ms. Diana Ayaim Hammond from Willow Tree Children’s Centre, Accra, reminded everyone at the end of the over 2-hour session that learners are full of imagination, and it is everyone’s obligation to help them in using that creativity to discover solutions to the SDGs.

Through the efforts of Ms. Adwoa Anno, a UNESCO ASPnet Coordinator, this collaboration with OMEP was successful, and the Ghana Commission for UNESCO is grateful for this and looking forward to future ones.

We are happy to partner with OMEP because since 1948, OMEP has worked for all elements of early childhood education and care (ECEC) as an international, non-governmental, and non-profit organization. Present in more than 70 countries including Ghana, OMEP defends and promotes children’s rights to education and care around the world and supports initiatives that increase access to high-quality education and care, which are equally important to the Ghana Commission for UNESCO. We look forward to bringing on board the schools that are not part of the ASPnet fraternity.