Environmental analysis news: Sustainability 'must be high priority in education'

Sustainability must become a higher priority in education, it has been claimed.

Sara Parkin, founder, director and trustee of Forum for the Future, said that ideally people leaving school should be "sustainability literate".

Speaking at the European Economy Collar Forum, she noted that students in other EU countries study subjects such as science and philosophy until the end of their secondary schooling.

"This means not only do they have the scientific literacy, but they also have the capacity to talk about the type of society they want," she commented.

Meanwhile, it was suggested earlier this week that the green sector is set to become increasingly important as far as the UK economy is concerned.

Tony Rooke, environmental manager for business technology company Logica, said the idea of sustainability can be made more popular if people realise that employment is linked to it.

The Labour Party's 2010 general election manifesto pledges to create around 400,000 green jobs by 2015.

Written by Joseph Hutton