"SELF DETERMINATION IS KEY TO THE WORLD PEACE"
uly 12, 2011 – 3:54 pm
Thank you, Uvindu.
We must not waste any time. Let us start with the education
in schools:
Education for war must be transformed into education for
peace:
Education for War
1. A compulsory programme(-Leadership Training -) at army
camps for university entrants introduced at short notice:
Friday Forum, 10 June 2011: ”…. The curriculum of the
training programme obtained by the Friday Forum after some effort reveals
extremely problematic aspects. No mention is made of the authority
responsible for the curriculum but a prominent photograph of the Defence
Secretary on the cover of the study guide suggests authorship by the Defence
establishment. …. What is more problematic is the content of the module on
history and national heritage. …. "National heritage" focuses exclusively
on prominent cultural symbols of the majority Sinhala community with none
from other communities. …. On the whole the curriculum seems to discourage
tolerance for viewpoint difference, and sensitivities for the pluralism and
diversity of our country. …. ”
One reason for this can be that the government want to show
the students that the military is very much a part of the governance in this
country and another reason can be that the students are warned from staging
protests.
2.
Why education matters for global security, Irina
Bokova(Director General, UNESCO) 1 March 2011: ” Education must rise on the
agenda of peace building. We know the wrong type of education can fuel
conflict. The use of education systems to foster hatred has contributed to
the underlying causes of conflicts, from Rwanda to Sri Lanka, but also in
Guatemala and Sudan.”
The Changing face of Wesak in Colombo and Militarizing Sri
Lanka, 15 May 2009:
A school honouring ex-soldiers in Vesak(the most important
Buddhist festival in Sri Lanka) with student dancers in combat dress
depicting guns and Vesak cards with roses on guns:
4.
Publication – The Sri Lankan Experience, Ariya Wickrema, National Consultant
Educational Publications Departmen and Peter Colenso, EducationSpecialist,
World Bank, Colombo, 2003:
”…. The Government dominates the educational publications
sector in Sri Lanka through its provision of free textbooks to all students
from grade 1 to 11 …. distortion of history …. the textbooks encourage
children to develop "apartheid attitudes" ….. Tamils are portrayed as
"aggressors"; forces of the Tamil kings are "mercenaries’ , whereas forces
of the Sinhala kings are "soldiers" …. War is shown as patriotic while
peace is portrayed as cowardice.”
5.The Two Faces of Education in Ethnic Conflict: Towards a
Peacebuilding Education for Children – Kenneth D Bush and Diana
Saltarelli(2000) – published by Innocenti Research Centre, UNICEF:
"Ethnic intolerance makes it appearance in the classroom in
many ways…… Textbooks have often been shown to contain negative ethnic
stereotypes….. A review of the textbooks used in the segregated schools of
Sri Lanka in the 1970s and 1980s, for example, found Sinhalese textbooks
scattered with images of Tamils as the historical enemies of the Sinhalese,
while celebrating ethnic heroes who had vanquished Tamils in ethnic wars.
Ignoring historical fact, these textbooks tended to portray Sinhalese
Buddhists as the only true Sri Lankans, with Tamils, Muslims and Christians
as non- indigenous and extraneous to Sri Lankan history. This version of
national history according to one commentator, has been deeply divisive in
the context of the wider state."
6. Reggie Siriwardene, a well-respected Sinhalese writer, in
a well-documented analysis of the effects of school textbooks on ethnic
relations in Sri Lanka(1984):
"Millions of school children are taught, in the name of
social studies, through text-books published by the state, the myths of
divergent racial origins which will help to divide the Sinhalese and Tamils
for more generations to come… What this lesson does is to evoke the
child’s memories of being frightened by his parents with threats of the
mysterious and fearful `billo’ to identify these bogeymen as Tamil agents,
and thus to enlist the deep-seated irrational fears of early childhood for
the purpose of creating apprehension and hatred of Tamils."
7. In the 1950s and 1960s Tamil and Sinhalese scholars
vehemently protested this but the Education Department that produces the
textbooks dismissed their concern. Education for Peace
- Entries (RSS)
About us
Global Peace Support Group UK Ltd is a registered organisation based in London. The organisation dedicated to be involved in humanitarian and other related issues. We also work along with other similar organisations to promote peace and harmony among various societies..
GLOBAL PEACE SUPPORT GROUP - UK - TIRELESSLY WORK ON THE CONCEPT OF:
"SELF DETERMINATION IS KEY TO THE WORLD PEACE"
MOURNS ON THE CONTINUED TRAGEDY OF THE PEOPLE OF North & East of Tamil EELAM WITH THE HOPE OF ALL OF OUR ENDEAVOURS WOULD BRING AN END TO THOSE SUFFERING DURING THE YEAR AHEAD.
The International community has a duty towards the long suffering Sri Lankan Tamil population to restore their rights of SELF DETERMINATION.
Global Peace Support Group - believes that this is the ONLY way for a permanent PEACE in Sri Lanka.
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