The Global Debate: Nepal

The Launch: March 12th

The launch of the debate in Nepal was initiated after the Honourable Minister for Education and Sports, Mr. Pradeep Nepal, made public the Save the Children Alliance report "Where Peace Begins - Education's Role in Conflict Prevention and Peace Building" in Kathmandu on March12th .

As part of the  launch, a short video clip of children's statement about how they related to education and peace was shown, followed by a panel discussion on the report. Summarizing the "Where Peace Begins" report, Country Representative of Save the Children, Gunnar Andersen, said that as Nepal moves ahead to a new era of political and social development, the country could not forget the children. He stated that having just emerged out of the conflict, it is important to have children as the focus to create a positive future for Nepal. He said the two challenges facing Nepal were access and quality of education and underscored these challenges when he disclosed that up to 40,000 children were waiting to enroll in schools in the Karnali region in far-west Nepal alone. In terms of quality education, he pointed out alarming statistics which showed that 30% of first grade children had dropped out last year.

Although Nepal is amongst the few countries which have included education in its peace agreement, Country Coordinator for Rewrite the Future, Gopini Pandey, said the realities regarding education and children were very different than the commitments expressed in the peace agreement. To underscore the responsibility of parties towards education, she also reminded the political establishment of their declaration "Establishment of a New Nepal Should Start with Children" which was signed by the seven ruling parties last September.

Panelists who took part in the discussion argued that there were close to 30% out-ofschool children while only 11% was accounted for by the government. They also criticised the government and the political parties of not being committed to
implementing the provisions of education in the peace agreement. An area of focus during the discussion was that psychosocial support should be provided to children at all levels because children had been witness to murders, abduction and abuse of their teachers and friends.

A tenth grade child, Shiromani Ojha from Kanchanpur who attended the launch, questioned the double standards of political parties for routinely using children for political purposes and government plans for
educating children affected by conflict.

As part of Save the Children's media activities to strengthen the global debate on "Rewrite the Future - Education for Peace", Nepal's private Television Channel Kantipur Television conducted a SMS poll through its ‘Janta ko Awaz' (People's Voice) section in the news. Viewers were asked "Will incorporating peace education in the school curriculum help to establish peace in the country?"

The options viewers were given were

A. It will help a lot
B. It will help a little bit
C. It will not help at all

The results of the poll from more than 1200 respondents were mixed with 32.5 % saying it would help a lot while 20.5 % said it could help a bit. However, 47 % of the respondents said that it would make no difference even if peace education was included in school curriculum.

The poll result appears to indicate that television viewers did not think peace education in school curricula would help in the peace building process in the long term. It could be seen as an indication that there is low level of understanding amongst television viewers about the link between education and long term peace. It appears that public perception of peace is seen from a political angle.

The poll result could be seen as an indication that incorporating peace education in curriculum may not be adequate. Therefore it will be up to the Save the Children Alliance in Nepal to take up the challenge to advance the concept of education and peace through formal and informal mechanism by promoting dialogue as well as raising public awareness of the power of education in building peace.

However, with 32.5 % of the respondents firmly believing and 20.5 % partially being convinced that peace education in school could help establish peace in Nepal, it only underscores Jan Eagland's conviction that "Education plays an absolutely fundamental role in bringing war torn countries and societies through reconciliation and rebuilding towards peace".

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