In light of growing social tensions, environmental crises and challenges to democracy, academics, educators and education policymakers are calling for a fundamental reorientation of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in primary schools – towards political sustainability education. These demands were enshrined in the ‘Berlin Declaration’ on 17 March, which was largely drafted by Prof. Dr Bernd Overwien and Jurik Stiller from the Department of General Studies and its Didactics at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU).
Now that the initial signatories have already expressed their support for the Berlin Declaration, it is being presented to further stakeholders in education policy. Signatures can still be submitted online until the end of April. The declaration will then be handed over to the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs for onward transmission to the state ministries.
Sustainability as a political and societal task
Whilst education for sustainable development in primary schools has so far focused primarily on individual behavioural changes such as waste separation or energy saving, the signatories criticise the fact that this causes social structures, political decision-making processes and economic power relations to be overlooked. Children are thus addressed one-sidedly as consumers and burdened with a responsibility that they can neither bear alone nor resolve.
Political sustainability education from the outset
One of the key demands of the ‘Berlin Declaration’ is the curricular integration of critical-political ESD in all federal states – both across subjects and within specific subjects. Furthermore, the declaration calls for a strengthening of political education and ESD-related content in the study and examination regulations for primary school teacher training. It is also necessary to develop quality-assured teaching materials that highlight institutional levels of action (politics, administration, business) and emphasise collective options for action. Furthermore, it is desirable to embed cultures of democratic participation in everyday primary school life – for example, through pupil parliaments or collaborations with civil society actors in the spirit of a ‘whole-school approach’. Research findings show that children already possess political judgement at primary school age and are capable of reflecting on complex issues of justice and responsibility. Political sustainability education therefore regards collective action and democratic participation as core competencies – not just in secondary schools, but from the very beginning.
“Children have a right to political education”
The signatories call on education policy-makers, teacher training providers and school practitioners to implement this conceptual reorientation with determination: “Children have a right to political education – and society has a right to a school that considers democracy and sustainability together,” say Overwien and Stiller. Among the initial signatories of the declaration are the co-authors Prof. Dr Detlef Pech (Head of the Department of General Studies and its Didactics, HU), Prof. Dr Sarah Désirée Lange (Chair of Primary School Pedagogy, University of Chemnitz), Prof. Dr Andreas Eis (Chair of Didactics of Political Education, University of Kassel) and Prof. Dr Niels Pinkwart, Vice-President for Teaching and Studies at HU.
The ‘Berlin Declaration’ was drafted during the closing conference of the project ‘Social-ecological education for sustainable development in primary school general studies’, funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU), held on 16 and 17 March 2026 at HU with 100 participants, including teachers, students, representatives from all stages of teacher training, as well as non-school learning environments and others interested in political sustainability education, many of whom have joined the declaration as initial signatories.