“Averting war is the work of politicians; establishing peace is the work of education”
The world we live in is full of challenges and opportunities. These challenges as well as opportunities are diverse and multifaceted in nature. The challenges are in in the form of war, conflict, disputes, violence, communalism, corruption, poverty, hunger, pollution and illiteracy. The opportunities too are varied like science, technology, telecommunication and transportation, artificial intelligence, global economy, latest research, knowledge, education and information.
Peace Education too is emerging an important opportunity for the young generation all around the world. It is to make the common living possible with the ambit of human values and the earth a real place to live, dream and aspire.
When we talk about peace we talk about a system where there is no war. It refers to; a) the absence of threat to the core as well as the acquired values of life. The core values are those values which are fundamental to live a life and which constitutes its basic necessities like bread, clothes and shelter (Roti, Kapda, Makaan). Any threat to these values is actually the threat to the essence of human life. The acquired values are those which make the human life good, respectable, dignified and worth to live. Some of the core acquired values are liberty, equality, justice, fraternity, education, health, property etc. b) peace also demands the existence and availability of all the necessary conditions and opportunity which are sufficient for the personality development of an individual as per his potential and talent.
Peace is a stress-free state of security and calmness that comes when there is no fighting or war, everything co-existing in a perfect harmony and freedom. It is a state of not being interrupted or annoyed by any want, worry, problems, noise or unwanted actions. Peace refers to the active pursuit of the moral and material resources-needed to establish human welfare.
Peace education is a mechanism or a system which is based on collection of values and principles framed, developed, designed and crafted through which the human existence is accepted the way it is. Peace education is the practice of the universally accepted principal that is ‘live and let live”.
The plurality and diversity in the society is accepted and respected by one and all. It is actually the democratization of living. People irrespective of their race, colour, caste, religion status, geography and gender love to live together and each one respect the dignity and individuality of others the way they would love to see for themselves. It is propagated on the core values of absence of fear, freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, social justice, equal opportunities , democratic atmosphere and stability.
The major domains or areas of concern of the peace education are:
I. Inculcation of values: Peace is a value and it is inculcated. The value is inculcated through structured manner. In peace education people are oriented about the peace and its benefits. The values are developed in such a way that everybody love to live together with shared rights and responsibilities it focuses on the values of love, respect, gratitude, truthfulness, purity, beauty and harmony, humility and the spirit of service. Development of all these values leads the development of value of peace .
II. Nurturing the social skills: The nurturing of social skill is one of the important area of peace education. It nurtures the social skills, thought process and the outlook of the people in order to protect and promote the concept of common living. It propagates the principles of cooperation, adaptability, inclusiveness, self- discipline, responsibility and sustainability in a world which is full of hatred and divisive politics. The social skills are being nurtured through a) communication skills like clear and coherent ideas, b) active listening i.e development of the attitude to accommodate the diverse ideas, c) negotiation- recognizing the role and limitations of compromise and d) non-verbal communication- to understand the body language.
III. Reinforcement of social justice: Peace education strongly rejects all forms and means of injustice discrimination and immoral values which are against the basic tenants of humanity like discrimination, corruption, communalism, cultural hegemony etc. In the different regions of the world we have different types of discrimination. It is somewhere in the form of race and colour, somewhere in the forms of caste and gender, somewhere in terms of hunger and starvation and somewhere in terms of sect and religion. Peace education reinforces the concept of justice and promotes it in its pure form. It is being the propagated by ending all the formal unequal privileges and through affirmative actions or through positive discriminations hence it promotes equal treatment for all along with equal privileges and opportunities.
IV. Development of sense of duty: Peace education invokes the sense of duty among the people as it talks much about rights and responsibility of the good citizens of a system. It propagates a long list of duties in which more focus is on respecting the human rights, reconciliation and truth, ensuring the equality, promotion of sustainable economic and social development, fostering democratic participation, abjuring the violence, safeguarding the public property, protection of natural environment, preservation of ecological balance, compassion for living creatures, supporting the participatory communication, free flow of information and knowledge.
One of the significant features of the NEP-2020 is to internationalize the Indian education system. This is being done through adaptation of the curriculum which is relevant globally and based on inclusion, humanism, gender sensitivity and peace education content besides being well integrated, all-encompassing and fully synchronized with the cultural ethos of the nation. One of the objectives of the policy is to make the 21st century Indian students universally relevant and globally competent. The global relevance and competence needs the capability and virtue of adaptability. This adaptability and competence are actually the learning outcomes of peace education. Hence peace content, its efficacy, promotion, propagation and implementation should be the prime agenda of policy makers, system leaders, the pedagogical leaders and the teachers in the learning organizations.
(Author is Sr. Academic Officer, SCERT-KD.)
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.
The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK.