KARACHI: Peace is a constant struggle that can only come through dialogue and mutual respect for each other’s beliefs and ideals, said speakers at a two-day educational conference that opened on Saturday.

The conference titled I am Karachi – Teach for Peace has been organised by Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers (Spelt) in collaboration with I am Karachi, a platform of concerned citizens striving for peace, at Dawood Public School.

In her inaugural address, Prof Zakia Sarwar, honourary executive director of Spelt, said the organisation had always been a pioneer in the field of education and addressed the needs of teachers and learners. The organisation, she said, was formed as a result of teachers’ desire to improve their professional expertise in the absence of government initiatives to improve educational standards, especially English.

“By holding this innovative conference in collaboration with I Am Karachi, Spelt has brought teachers, parents, civil society members on one platform to deliberate on how to bring back the vibrant lifestyle that was once the hallmark of Karachiites,” she said.

Spelt, she said, had planted a small sapling in the name of peace and all stakeholders needed to join hands together to nurture the plant. “This will not happen automatically. All of us need to think of practical ways to bring peace in our society, which can only come through dialogue and mutual respect,” she added.

Highlighting the need for tolerance, she said that younger generation should be encouraged to develop tolerance and to think and develop a spirit of inquiry, instead of the robotic learning that focused on getting marks and a degree.

The event, she said, was not a traditional conference as it was aimed at mobilising all segments of society to begin a movement for peace “so that our children can go to school without fear and their intellectual horizons are widened to appreciate diversity in opinion. They could learn to be tolerant and live in a harmonious and peaceful society,” she said.

The conference, she informed the audience, would expose teachers to transformative experiences equipping them with practical activities to promote peace education in classroom, school and in society at large.

Former information minister Javed Jabbar said the country’s situation required that teachers revisit their roles. They had a four-fold responsibility, he said, they should act as a transmitter of genuine knowledge, a catalyst to initiate progressive change inside the minds of pupils even as external conditions in their homes and areas remained stagnant or worsened, a trainer of youth on how to build the practice of non-violence and thus become a quiet, unacknowledged but effectively, a true leader.

Amin Hashwani, part of the I am Karachi consortium, gave a very crisp but powerful speech, highlighting how social and cultural problems could be fixed. He said: “Peace is a constant struggle: Jehad-i-Akbar. We should not take peace lightly. The most basic thing to do is to correct and fine tune the society.”

He went on to say that the continued violence in the city had brought the society to a point that the dead had reduced to mere statistics. “We have to make a conscious effort to turn I Am Karachi into a movement, a struggle for peace,” he said.

Zohra Yousuf, Romana Husain, Asif Noorani, Abbas Hussain, Fatima Shahabuddin, Amer Ishaque, Dr Bernadette L. Dean and Dr Nasreen Hussain also spoke.

Published in Dawn January 25th , 2015

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