Daily Times

The present era of chaos, conflict and increasing rates of crimes across the globe shows the significance of peace education. Conflict is inherent in human nature. It is a part of our lives, and whether it generates good or bad outcomes depend solely on how insightfully the conflict is handled. To prevent armed conflicts and save lives and resources, peace education remains a key pillar. With the help of peace education, mentors can guide and teach the next generation towards a better understanding of problems and ways to address them diplomatically. It can help create leaders equipped with awareness and problem-solving skills to deal with the complexities of the conflicts; leading to the formation of a more equitable society.

Unlike conflict resolution that is aimed to solve conflict after it has occurred, peace education imparts a proactive approach. It helps people learn skills for peaceful resolution of conflict, and to reinforce these skills for the advancement of peace values in the society. It is aimed at preventing conflict in advance and educating individuals for peaceful existence based on the values of social justice, tolerance, respect, non-violence and equality. Throughout history, the concept of peace, its role, and its significance in education has experienced variations. The end of World War 1 (1914-1918) witnessed the great need for mutual understanding and cooperation among nations, instilling a desire to incorporate just ideas in the educational system.

UNESCO, an umbrella organisation of the United Nations was founded in 1946, to develop, plan, and implement changes in the general education system conforming to the values of security, inclusiveness, and peace. A framework was created to apply and develop the fundamentals of peace in the education system. The cold war division of the world into western and eastern blocs and balance of power redirected the peace efforts. Peace movements became focused on encouraging disarmament, halting the threat of nuclear war and arms race. The development and environmental protection issues also found their way in the peace education. Moreover, the increasing gap between developed and developing countries, terrorist events, have created more challenges for the development and understanding of peace education.

The end of World War 1 witnessed the great need for mutual understanding and cooperation among nations.

The field of peace education is too diverse, ranging from violence/conflict at the school level to the international security issues, from human rights to environmental protection and sustainable development, and from the conflict between developed and developing/underdeveloped nations to portraying peace as the ideal of future and progress. One can find a variety of issues in peace education; hence the diversity of fields makes its practical implementation more challenging. Each peace education program must be focused not only on empowering a person on an individual level for critical thinking, but he must have the ability to resist the majority in case of discrimination or injustice. Ignorance about other cultures is significant in the development of prejudices; therefore educating individuals about customs, practices, and values of different cultures contributes to reducing prejudice and negative stereotypes about others.

Though peace education is important to learn by people of all ages, the most effective time to get engaged in learning/teaching peace education is at a very young age. All mankind learns to interact with people and start growing as an individual as a child. As kids grow, they form their own unique opinions and perspective concerning the world around them. Whatever they observe and learn from others at that age is of utmost significance, learning about peace at such tender age is a wonderful opportunity to develop a positive viewpoint of the world. Several educators have incorporated various dimensions of peace education under the term “culture of peace”, which emphasizes the goal of education as both the reduction of violence and mindset transformation which stresses the culture of war. To establish a culture of peace, it is significant to accept the principles of diversity, tolerance, gender equity, commit to peaceful settlement of the conflict, and create the social norms of dignity and respect for every individual.

In Pakistan, we badly need to promote peace education concerning the widespread social evils, chaos, ethnic and sectarian tensions, increasing radicalization in society, and numerous other negative stereotypes. Over years, some initiatives were launched by the government and non-governmental entities to promote peace education. Various local and international organizations are also operational in the country with the same motive. Though, a greater challenge remains in imparting peace education in Madrassas as their leaders consider it as a threat towards religion. Also, meagre budget allocation for the education sector and a greater focus on basic/traditional education, makes it hard to truly initiate peace education programs. Predominantly, it is significant to remove biased and hateful content from textbooks as a step towards tackling radicalisation among people. Moreover, concerning the literacy rate, the foremost aim should be to promote basic education in Pakistan. Though, rapidly deteriorating tolerance and peace in the society demands a greater need towards implementing peace education at all levels.

On a final note, the necessity of peace education has never been as greater as it is today particularly emphasizing peace education in schools. There isn’t any way to magically implement peace education, nonetheless, consistency, discipline, and practice can make objectives feasible. The overall goal of peace education is to transform a conflict through non-violence, sustained contact, dialogue, and interpersonal trust towards the creation of peaceful and sustainable communities. Joint peace education programs initiated by governmental and non-governmental can prove beneficial to achieve this arduous yet crucial task.

To conclude, Albert Einstein famously quoted “Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding”.

The writer is a researcher and can be reached at aneezaamaham@gmail.com.