|
|
|
| October 31, 2002 | Thursday | Sha’aban 24,1423 |
Need for peace education stressed
ISLAMABAD, Oct 30: Humanity needs peace and prosperity more than ever as war and conflicts have caused enormous losses and damages to the humanity and deprived millions of people from their right to live in peace, said renowned peace activist and educationist Prof Betty Reardon here on Wednesday.
She was speaking at a seminar on “Peace Education” at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) auditorium here on Wednesday.
The seminar was jointly organized by Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy and Citizens’ Peace Committee Rawalpindi-Islamabad.
Prof Betty Reardon stressed the need for comprehensive education to maintain peace and security in the world and provide common people free and peaceful atmosphere to live in. Through education we could attain the desired results and abolish the bonds of hatred which are the main causes of war and conflicts.
Explaining different kinds of violence, and causes of deprivation among of the people, she said economic, cultural, political and many other violences were being perpetrated on the common people to stop the growth of opponents. Youth is being involved in violence as it is a useful tool in the hands of violence mongers, she said, adding “this is point of concern for the people and policy-makers and there is need to think over it and take appropriate measure to stop the involvement of youth in any sort of violence world over”.
She urged for a people to people, government to government and group to group dialogue to make sure that every person should play its role in peace making. This, she said, is also a step in imparting education and training about peace.
In these circumstances, according to the peace activist, civil society organizations have to play an important role to change the present scenario. It is necessary that CSOs come forward and improve the democratic culture in the world. They should make close liaison with governments and public sector institutions to attain the desired goals of making peace, she said.
Prof Reardon said education and training was the only way to change the behaviour and psychology of the people. Until and unless the attitude and behaviour of common people, in general, and youth, in particular, is changed peace is not possible, she added.
She stressed the need for using all out efforts and resources for the establishment of the institutions for peace education and training, adding there are military academies in almost every country of world, which are imparting war skills among people. But, she added, “it is unfortunate to note that no institution has so far been established to give proper education about peace to the people.”
She called upon the government and civil society organizations to set up institutions of peace education.
Prof Reardon called upon the world to make sure the inclusion of peace education in their curriculum in order to apprise the youth about importance of peace for existence. “Wars have caused poverty, illiteracy and deprivation in the world and no efforts were made to end the confrontation and abolish the sword of damocles hanging over the heads of people in the shape of war”.
Huge amounts, she said, were being allocated in budgets for war, armaments and military build-ups, but no amount was being allocated for peace education.—Sardar Sheeraz Khan
|
|
|
|
