Jan 30, 2019 / 17 SDGs

2 days to teach the 17 Sustainable Development Goals to 3,000 school students

Kolkata, January 29th & 30th, 2019 – The World’s Largest Lesson (WLL) brings the Global Goals to children all over the world, reaching over 130 countries and millions of children since its launch in September 2015.

In that year, the United Nations launched The Global Goals for Sustainable Development, a series of 17 ambitious targets to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice and fix climate change at a global scale for everyone by 2030. If the Goals are met, they ensure the health, safety and future of the planet for everyone on it. The United Nations produce free and creative resources for educators to teach lessons, run projects and stimulate action in support of the Goals. Produced by Project Everyone and delivered in partnership with UNICEF and many NGOs, private sector organisations and foundations, the World’s Largest Lesson reaches students through multiple channels. Ministries of Education are invited annually to take part. NGOs distribute digital content through their networks and education organisations, both for and non-profit, encourage participation through their communities.

AIESEC is one of the biggest youth organisation in the world. It is a non-political, independent, not-for-profit organisation present in close to 130 countries and run by students and recent graduates of institutions of higher education. Since they were founded in the wake of World War II, they have been promoting intercultural exchanges engaged and developed over 1,000,000 young people who have been through an AIESEC experience abroad. 
Y-East, the Sustainability and Social Innovation wing of Techno India Group, coordinated AIESEC’s visit to Techno India campus to train around 200 volunteering Techno India University (TIU) and Saltlake College (TISL) students about the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Pauline Laravoire, Techno India’ Sustainability Director, explains: ‘Integrating social and environmental concerns into our education system is essential. And it starts right in our schools, at the youngest age possible’.

On Tuesday January 29th and Wednesday January 30th, the volunteering students along with AIESEC team members led 3-hour workshops in 6 Techno India schools, in Kolkata and its outskirts. In just 2 days, more than 3,000 school students, from class 2 to 12, were taught about the Global Goals and how to implement them at their individual and school level!