The Necessity and Value of Peace Education for Achieving Sustainable Peace ②
“How can you change the violent reality when children are being exposed to it on a daily basis? When children between the ages of 9 and 11 years old were asked about what they believe violence it, most drew killers. However, when I applied the value of “conflict resolution” as prescribed by HWPL to a class held with children that were 5-9 years old (in view of problems faced by school children), the result was surprising. The change in their attitudes and facial expressions was clear, and joy was clearly seen within the pictures they drew. So, the values integrated within HWPL’s peace education will create a permanent change since it instills the correct values in the minds of children from a young age.”
Prof. Juan Carlos Torres, Professor of Don Bosco University in El Salvador who participated in the Peace Education Development Forum for Spreading a Culture of Peace last year addressed the positive changes that appeared within children and youth through the teaching of HWPL’s core values of peace: ‘Sanctity of Life,’ ‘Loyalty and Filial Piety,’ and ‘Co-existence and Sustainability.’
HWPL’s Peace Education initiative has been conducted steadily every year through teachers and education experts worldwide. Especially through the Peace Education Development Forum for Global Advancement that was held under the theme of ‘Looking into a Future of Peace through Peace Education’ this year, the importance of peace education was extended from the academic field to the national level. Here we’ve covered some of the key messages given by education professionals during the forum.
Dr. Ronald Adamat, Commissioner, Commission on Higher Education
“Today we should ask ourselves: Why do we have to work for peace? Why do we have to band ourselves together in the name of peace? Don’t you imagine how close to perfection this world would be if there is peace and if there is development amongst people? But how can peace and development be attained?
Education has to play a major role in the process as it serves as a means to attain the achievement of peace. Also, to make education more relevant and significant, it has to be grounded in the values of peace because education without values will never amount to much in the upright transformation of a person.”
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Dr. João A.G Assale, Mozambique, National Director, Ministry of Education and Human Development
“Education must work towards knowing how to live together with others, which translates to the ethical dimension of a complete man, i.e. a man that is morally sound, who knows how to communicate with others and who respects himself, his family and other men of various cultures, religions, races, etc. A vision for the future depends on reinforcing a proper education that address issues related to strengthening co-ordination mechanisms that promote the development of equity, peace and equality-based development.”
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Prof., Dr. Barsihannor Zuhri, Dean of Universitas Islam Negeri Alauddin Makassar
"Awareness of mutual respect, tolerance, and interfaith dialogue must be instilled, and developed, from childhood. Since the HWPL Peace Values Education is aimed at growing children, if the children and youths keep the values of peace and love in their minds and live accordingly, then the peace which is achieved in this era will be sustained eternally through those peace values. Peace education should promote the noble character in the minds of our children as endorsed as the main objective of Indonesia’s National Education, which includes namely; faith, honesty, tolerance, discipline, to be hard-working, creativeness, spirit of independence, democratic ideas, curiosity, national character, patriotism, respect for others’ achievements, friendship, love of peace, love of reading, environmental protection, social maintenance, and responsibility. These characteristics are essential aspects that must be instilled in peace education in order to build a spirit of peace.”
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H.E. Rachana Khun, Under Secretary of State of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the Kingdom of Cambodia
“As stated in ‘Article 10: Spreading a Culture of Peace’ of the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW), we should teach the Peace Values to our children and let them create ‘sustainable development and cooperation.’ This is the HWPL Peace Values Education. So, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport from the Kingdom of Cambodia will be at the forefront of peace education through this signing of an MOA for peace education with HWPL. If every country in the world takes action to actively work for peace education, every human being will choose the first path of ‘cooperation,’ among the 2 paths which I mentioned at first. Also, they will walk to the eternal peaceful world together. Therefore, we must educate the values of peace to our next generation in order to achieve peace not just in our country, but also in our region and the world at large.”
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Hon. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, Sri Lanka, Minister, Ministry of Higher Education (MOHEC)
“We, together with HWPL, are not just trying to change one nation or a single individual but to foster the entire world population of 7.6 billion people as citizens of peace. Education has a public nature which relates directly to all humankind. Peace education, in particular, has this type of publicness since it teaches the origins of human beings and human nature. Also, this matter of the origin of human beings and human problems is far more important than the matters that are traditionally considered to be important such as scores, academic cliques, or employment. Therefore, peace education can be said to have a greater public reach than any other.”
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Dr. Ali Munhanif, Professor of Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta
“In order to transform all the Muslim universities in Indonesia into peace education institutes, all the universities are creating a system for peace education. We have created a civic education program in order to embrace sensitive issues within a pluralistic society and we are striving to nurture a generation that is able to actively participate in peace activities.
In order to construct this civic education system, we have received inspiration from HWPL’s systematic peace education. I believe that the peace education HWPL is promoting is a very effective way to achieve a world of peace. The reason is because education is a continual process and therefore, it needs to be implemented from an elementary level all the way to the highest level of education. We must incorporate HWPL’s peace education within the existing civic education, be able to give grades to the students for credit and provide an opportunity for all students to receive peace education.”