Education for Sustainable Development: Ireland’s Success and the Path Forward

The individual benefits of education, such as higher earnings and employability, better health, and greater life opportunities, are well documented in many academic literatures and elsewhere. Yet education can also benefit the ‘common good’ where learning generates broader societal benefits – from knowledge spillovers that drive innovation and economic growth, to increased tax contributions and civic participation, to the development of informed individuals and groups capable of addressing collective challenges like climate change and sustainability.