News
UNESCO Invites Schools to Compete in the Contest: Lesson Plan of Teaching with East Asian Living Heritage 2025

We are looking forward to receiving your submissions at
by 15 June 2025, Beijing Time
Please indicate 鈥Lesson Plan of Teaching with Living Heritage鈥 in the subject line.
Background
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development advocates the 鈥減romotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture鈥檚 contribution to sustainable development鈥 as an important target to achieve Goal 4 on quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all. One of culture鈥檚 manifestations is living heritage or intangible cultural heritage (ICH). It includes cultural practices and knowledge that are meaningful to communities. They are a part of people鈥檚 identity which they want to continue to transmit to future generations.
ICH can provide context-specific content and pedagogy for education programs and improve learning outcomes. For example, education for sustainable development uses indigenous knowledge and ICH as a key resource for communities in understanding the environment, assessing climate change impacts, sustainably using natural resources and adapting to them. UNESCO promotes teaching and learning through and about ICH in education programs in all relevant disciplines. At the same time, bringing ICH in education also contributes to raising awareness about ICH and encourage youth to engage in ICH safeguarding.
UNESCO Regional Office for East Asia and its Category 2 Centers CRIHAP and ICHCAP, are excited to announce the Contest: Lesson Plan of Teaching with East Asian Living Heritage 2025. We invite educators of all school levels from across East Asia region to showcase their creativity and pedagogical expertise by submitting innovative lesson plans that integrate living heritage or intangible cultural heritage (ICH) into the teaching and learning activity. This exciting competition aims to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of the rich cultural traditions and practices that shape our diverse communities. By bringing living heritage to life through engaging lesson plans, we hope to inspire a new generation of learners to connect with and safeguard our heritage.
Application Guidelines
- The contest is open for lesson plans submission from teachers and educators in East Asia (China, DPRK, Japan, Mongolia, Republic of Korea).
- Download and fill out the Application form below and submit it to beijing.culture@unesco.org by 15 June 2025.
- The Application Form must be filled out in English (If your original lesson plan is in another language than English, you can opt to use machine translation for inputs on the Form). Any documents relevant to your application, such as the lesson plan in original language other than English, could be attached with your submission.
- Each submission should contain only 1 lesson plan on the Application Form. Multiple applications could be submitted from the same school.
- Consent from the school management is required before submission. The signature of school director or principal is required on the Application Form.
Benefits
- In recognition of the outstanding efforts and contributions of educators in promoting teaching and learning with ICH, the teachers of the selected submissions will be invited to participate in a workshop later this year, providing an opportunity for capacity building and exchange with culture and education experts. This workshop applies to educators with proficient English skills.
- Selected submissions will be deposited in the repository of UNESCO Headquarters and disseminated as good examples through our networks for expanded mutual learning.
Useful Resources
For more information about teaching and learning with living heritage, you are highly encouraged to consult the following materials in developing your lesson plans.
- to raise awareness about the topic of integrating living heritage to schools, targeting teachers, education managers, community members and students. The series have been made available in a number of languages.
- for teachers and educators on Bringing Living Heritage to the Classroom in Asia-Pacific (2022) 鈥 providing 6 modules, 19 chapters, including 24 lectures on why and how to integrate ICH into lesson plans and activities; connecting ICH with the educational priorities such as GCED, ESD, MTBE, and SEL;
, Bringing Living Heritage to the Classroom in Asia-Pacific, (2022). The Resource Kit has been translated to Russian, Thai, Nepali, Khmer and Korean.
Please download and fill out the Application Form above and submit it to beijing.culture@unesco.org by 15 June 2025. We are looking forward to receiving your lesson plans!