Rebuild education system on the principle of peace to promote cooperative learning and democratic processes

Rebuild education system on the principle of peace to promote cooperative learning and democratic processes Follow @merinews

Dr. Lalit Kishore

04 July, 2018

Commercialisation of education, depersonalisation of institutions, increasing violence in educational institutions, politicisation of education, lack of quality education and violation of educational rights, examination ridden system and other management maladies of the system cannot be corrected by patchwork of restricting the system, opening of model schools or ranking institutions which further aggravates the situation through exclusion and marginalisation.

It is being held by many well meaning educators that violence is emerging in an unprecedented manner in human society. Looking at the world today any sensible person feels disheartened and even horrified to see the kind of violent acts being committed by man against man as well as against nature.

Although, the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, subscribed for peace and non-violence, it is sad to realise that we live in an era of violence in the forms of terrorism, war, crimes, injustice, oppression and exploitation amidst a seemingly outward development enjoyed by a few. The whole education system seems to have become meaningless.

According to Federico Mayor, peace is possible for life at all stages and it is up to man to choose his destiny or to suffer from the horrors of war. He further adds that today mankind is at the cross-roads where he has to choose right path with courage, determination and imagination.

In such a situation we need to go for non-aggression principle in education and learning. The non-aggression or peace principle is an ethical stance associated with the cooperative learning and rights-based education movements.

The psycho-social researches have proved that the aggressive and violent behaviour is a reaction against a lack of constructive and cooperative experiences rather than an innate natural drive. The basic urge of human beings is to live love which needs to be fostered and nurtured through education.

The principle of peace and non-violence needs to be built into the process of education itself. For this, the following three things need to be done without any change in the content of curriculum.

Peace education process establishes democratic classrooms that teach cooperation and promote positive self-esteem among students.

Teachers serve as peaceful role models to help to counteract images of violent behaviour young people receive through popular culture and in their homes.

Their teaching style adjusts to the developmental needs of their pupils, respecting the various identities and concerns about violence students bring to the classroom.

We must rebuild our education system on the principle of peace and deemphasize competition and promote cooperation and democratic processes in the educational institutions.

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