Education for sustainable development (ESD) – No One Route to Implement ESD to meet the SDGs

As all the countries are struggling to keep pace with one and another in meeting the sustainable development goals declared by United Nations, it requires that all the energy from the age of reasoning is put forward in letter and spirit to achieve it. This is because it is dealing with the survival of the planet and thereby the living organisms within it, and human beings who is one among them. In this context, it becomes pertinent that as human beings we cannot negate the initiatives taken by UN in guiding mankind with mechanisms that could aid in restoring the planet and thereby its resources. Various forms are there to achieve it, but as UNESCO has put, it will be possible through Education for Sustainable Development which is considered as the vehicle to drive past the countries in meeting the SDGs. Through this study, we would like to shed light on the various forms of education through which the ESD could be integrated, namely, the formal, informal and non-formal education. We would also place in an argument that the no one form of education will be a solution for implementing ESD, but it is the combination of all the three, with an addition to it, a concept borrowed from institution theory, that is, isomorphism. Bringing a isomorphic nature across the institutions of higher learning, within the communities and societies could transform the society into sustainable societies.