Intensions for global sustainable peace needs to be revised in political, governing and educational circles across the globe.
The world looks to be rapidly moving towards wars, crimes, injustice and inequality. As a result of this in-humanistic approach, hunger is rising.
United Nations agencies report that, about 282 million people suffering from acute hunger in Sudan and Gaza in 2023. In this situation, intentions for global sustainable peace look to be failed.
Although higher education institutions, political parties and governing bodies claim to have comprehensive policies and practices for sustainable peace.
In view of the rising situation of violence and crimes, there is no justification for claiming the peace practices. UN agencies report that armed conflicts across the globe killed at least 33,000 civilians in 2023. We have no words to describe the situation of children suffering in Ukraine and Gaza war.
Globally, political and governing leadership is surely a graduate from the universities. Universities have an important role in enhancing the vision of human security among the youth.
Role of Education in Promoting Peace
The major role of the universities is fostering peace among the communities. The importance of peace education cannot be denied in reducing the conflicts and enhancing the conflict resolution skills among the youth.
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Specialized research centers have been established to explore the causes and consequences of conflicts, crimes and wars.
No doubt, universities have extraordinary contributions in the field of peacebuilding in the form of research articles, dissertations, conferences, seminars and table talks. But the question is that to what extent is global community successful in promoting sustainable peace.
Can we say that our higher education institutions have practical contributions in promoting sustainable peace keeping in view the facts and figures of attacks, kidnapping and abuse with innocent children across the globe?
Should the political and governing leadership rethink about their vision and practices about peace keeping across the globe? The response of the children of Ukraine and Gaza will be surely, NO.
In this alarming situation, our educational institutions should rethink about their vision and approach towards peace teachings and peace practices. Surely, the initiative should be taken from revising the content on peace in the curriculum of educational institutions.
No doubt, we have intensions for the peace keeping in our societies. We should assess that to what extent our intensions are going to be successful. For this, it needs to revisit our intensions for global sustainable peace in political, governing and educational circles.
Challenges in Achieving Global Sustainable Peace
For teaching peace, this is a global concern that we have a small number of peace teaching educators particularly at school level. We should revisit the teacher training programs. To what extent the content included in the teacher training is successful in training the educators to teach peace successfully?
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Except this, a separate course on sustainable peace should be included in the school curriculum. The content of this course should be activity based. There should be focus on the practical contributions of students in promoting peace in society.
We should focus on changing the mind and vision of our youth through their practical contributions for promoting peace. The peace course should enable our youth to overcome and control conflicts.
Clarity in peace and violence needs to teach particularly at school level. Mostly, it has been observed that students have no clear understanding about the peace and violence. For this, it’s also important that critical thinking should be promoted in our youth.
Our youth should be in position to critically analyze the situation and to respond positively for sustainable peace. Life skills including negotiations should be promoted through teaching learning process.
There should a global forum of educational institutions to discuss the peace teachings programs and to assess the effectiveness of peace teachings. Such initiatives are need of the day to the protection and safety of our societies across the globe.
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