Environmental education and outcomes-based education in South Africa: A marriage made in heaven?

Abstract

The infusion of environmental education into a new South African curriculum marks a historic shift from the past where it was marginalised from mainstream, formal education. Through the Environmental Education Policy Initiative (EEPI), environmental education was included as a key principle in the most recent government white paper on education and training. This policy process provided a platform for the establishment of an Environmental Education Curriculum Initiative (EECI) to ensure that environmental concerns form part of the new outcomes based curriculum (OBE) for South Africa. Many members of the environmental education community have been actively involved in EECI activities and environmental education and OBE was one of the key features at the most recent conference of the Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa (EEASA). In this article we attempt to highlight the parallels between environmental education and OBE and raise a critical debate around the institutionalisation of environmental education in South Africa.