Last November Goodenough College and The Royal Commonwealth Society brought together four experts to discuss and debate the role that education can play in putting youth at the forefront of fostering stability, change, and a peaceful future.
The justification for putting youth at the heart of these issues is simple – youth are often seen as the most vulnerable to turn to violent acts, but what is habitually left out is their capacity to be agents for change, and their ability of bringing new and innovative ways to address the issues of today. Secondly, the youth population is only growing, currently now 60 percent of Commonwealth citizens are under the age of 30.
There is a global shift towards the recognition that robust and quality education can play a critical role in preventing and countering violent extremism. A lack of quality education, just as poverty, bad governance and the absence of rule of law, creates a ‘push factor’ and raises the tensions that can make people more susceptible to a violent extremist narrative. Robust education can, among other things, encourage critical thinking, cultural awareness, respect and understanding, tolerance and cultures of peace. These attributes help create an environment whereby young people are more likely to resist the ‘pull factors’ that can lead them to employ or support the use of violence to express their grievances.
However, education on its own is not sufficient to prevent violence. Not all education inspires peaceful environments, and not all education can be classified as CVE work. The right to education is critical, but simply promoting education is not enough to prevent terrorism. We know this as many violent extremists are well educated. Secondly, education systems can in themselves be based along class or ethnic lines creating more grievances, and curricula can be written in a way that encourages discrimination and hate.
Tackling violent extremism through education must have a three-pronged approach. We can use formal and informal education to directly discuss the issues driving violent extremism and catalyse community action and local solutions. We can develop effective curriculums and equip teachers with tools to encourage critical thinking and respect and tolerance. Finally, we can work with governments to overhaul education systems to ensure that they are inclusive environments that encourage peace and dialogue.
These are some of the approaches that education ministers will consider at their summit in Fiji next month. The Commonwealth’s joined-up approach to development work means that governments can benefit from initiatives in our CVE unit as well as key resources from our education team, such as the Education Policy Framework and the Curriculum Framework for the Sustainable Development Goals which offer step-by-step guides that ministries can use to improve and modernise education policies and curriculums.
A version of this blog was originally published in the Royal Commonwealth Society’s Commonwealth Voices December 2017
