From Economics to Resources: Teaching Environmental Sustainability in Peru's Public Education

This dissertation examines the teaching of environmental awareness in
Peru's public educational system and how it needs to be consciously taught and
improved in order to overcome contamination and pollution of resources and
decrease poverty. This is a situation afflicting a significant percentage of
Peruvians, who face difficulty in surviving and living well because the scarcity of
clean air and water, unpolluted land, and affordable energy, which are basic
environmental resources. The teaching of environmental awareness, as
mandated by Educational Peruvian Laws and curriculum, should be redesigned
to promote environmental ethical awareness and sustainability to guard Peru's
natural and cultural resources, bounty and beauty before it is too late. In this
way, education will promote a better level of life for the majority of Peruvians.
Peruvian public education is presently in a state of emergency, as has been recognized by the former minister of education Javier Sota Nadal (2004-2006).
Only 1 0% of students leaving high school understand what they read and only
4% do well in mathematics. A number of reasons contribute to this tragedy.
Among them is principally the low quality of teaching and the inadequate budget
available for public education. Peru's laws, echoing the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, and mandate good and free education and guarantee the right to
live well. The reality is that none of these rights are properly given to the majority
of poor Peruvians.
This dissertation offers a course of action to teach and spread out not only
environmental awareness, but also environmental ethics and sustainability from a
personal perspective. This rounded concept, if applied, will form citizens able to
guard, protect, and preserve natural and cultural resources. The needed
environmental ethics and sustainability education will gradually guarantee, from
early in life, a truthful way to love, care, protect and preserve the ecosystem. Also
encompassed within this concept is to positively influence the behavior of
professionals, economists, politicians, and citizens. It envisions
interconnectedness between humans and the environment based on the
teaching of environmental ethics and sustainability, educating children to develop
critical thinking, and creativity, as well as adopting eco-design principles. This
different approach could definitely better the new generation's contribution to
preserve natural and cultural resources and to reduce poverty as well as
contribute an example to other countries. Present and future Peruvian generations will be able to connect, care, protect, and sustain resources, so
when it comes to sustainable development, they will be fully aware of the
consequences of their actions toward the environment, themselves and their
children's well being. In this way, education would truly fulfill its responsibility.