The Sintra Project: Culture of Peace in Schools

Since UNESCO is responsible for education in the UN system and since it has regular meetings of Government Education Ministers from around the world, one of the first initiatives I took when the Culture of Peace Programme was founded was to propose culture of peace aspects for educational systems. A brief list was published in the report of the International Conference on Education held in Geneva, Switzerland in October 1994:

a) Training and practice of conflict resolution and mediation in school systems, among staff and students, and extension through community involvement to the rest of society.

b) Linkage of school activities to ongoing activities in the community which promote participation by all in culture and development.

c) Incorporation into curricula of information about social movements for peace and non violence, democracy and equitable development.

d) Extension of the sense of community not only to all peoples but also to all life on the planet, with the aim of preserving both the world's cultural diversity and its ecology for future generations.

e) Systematic review and renovation of curricula to ensure an approach to ethnic, racial and cultural differences which emphasizes their equality and unique contributions to the enrichment of the common good.

f) Systematic review and renovation of the teaching of history, to give as much emphasis to non violent social change as to military aspects of history, with special attention given to the role of women in history.

g)Teaching of science in terms of its relation to culture and society, as a tool which can be used for war or for peace, for exploitation or for co operative development.

By 1996, we seemed to be making good progress towards implementation of the first point: extending the training and practice of conflict resolution and mediation through school systems, among staff and students, and community involvement to the rest of society. In 1995, Professor Morton Deutsch and his colleagues at the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (ICCCR) at Columbia University prepared a survey for us of existing programmes around the world, and in May 1996, an international forum in Portugal set the guidelines for a major project in this area. The guidelines recommended the establishment of a network of educational initiatives around the world who are engaged in conflict resolution and mediation with their communities to facilitate their exchange of information, experiences, and strategies and to provide recognition and mutual encouragement. It called for pilot projects in a diversity of educational institutions and social and cultural contexts with diverse methodologies, giving a priority to situations of exclusion and violence, such as those in urban ghettos and war-torn societies. And it made specific suggestions for partnerships, training, curriculum, research/evaluation, funding, general promotion/advocacy, and dissemination of information and results.

We had brought together at the Portugal forum a number of experts who could put the project on a solid scientific footing, and they indicated afterwards that they were prepared to go to work with UNESCO to launch it. Professor Deutsch offered to supervise a full-time staff person at who could provide training, research services and preparation of materials for pilot projects. The representative of the Carnegie Corporation, who played an active and enthusiastic role in the meeting, encouraged UNESCO and Professor Deutsch to apply for funding. All depended on UNESCO's follow-up and coordination, and there were two highly qualified experts at the meeting who were prepared to set aside their academic work and come to UNESCO to do this.

Prior to the Portugal meeting, we had received an explicit agreement by the Director-General of UNESCO to establish a post to coordinate the project, with the person to be located in the Education Sector but working jointly with the Culture of Peace Programme. We encouraged the two experts to apply for this post and wrote an elaborate grant request to Carnegie to fund ICCCR's collaboration with the UNESCO person responsible for the project. By September everything was ready to go except for the key event - the establishment of the UNESCO post. Once again we wrote joint memos to the Director-General from the CPP Director and the Assistant Director General for Education (who had come to the meeting in Portugal). And once again the Director-General wrote "OK." On this basis the job description was drafted, all of the relevant signatures were gathered and the post was sent to the Personnel Division to be advertised. Our candidates were put on alert: the position should be available in a matter of days.

Then, to my horror, I was told that the Director-General had decided to "give away" the post. Having visitors in his office from Saudi Arabia, he promised them a post in the Education Sector for "values education." The Bureau of the Budget informed him that he could not afford to establish two posts simultaneously, and suggested that he drop the post for the project on non-violence in favour of the post he had already promised to Saudi Arabia. Without consulting us, he wrote "OK" and the post was lost.

What was I to do? I could hardly tell this to Professor Deutsch, to the Carnegie Corporation, or to the people applying for the post. It would be interpreted as a scandal (which it was!) We wrote a memo to the Director-General, asking for a post in CPP instead so we would not lose the collaboration of Deutsch and the Carnegie Corporation - but no answer was received

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