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The 2nd Southeast
Asian Conflict Studies Network (SEACSN) Malaysian
National Workshop entitled “Peace Education:
Towards Promoting Peaceful Values and Positive
Peace in Malaysia” was successfully conducted
from January 17th – 18th 2003 with the
following objectives:
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To evaluate
the existing state of
the art of peace education
in Malaysia |
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To identify
and analyze the current
conflict issues in the
country |
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To formulate
and process a curriculum
for peace education for
Malaysian institutions
of higher learning as
well as for schools |
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To formulate
and process a curriculum
for peace education for
Malaysian institutions
of higher learning as
well as for schools |
The workshop has unanimously endorsed the proposition
that peace education is a necessity in Malaysia as the
country needs a mechanism to integrate its multi-religious
and multi-ethnic population. Since race and religion
are the major divisive issues in the country, the workshop
has come to a conclusion that peace education in Malaysia
should incorporate elements that enhance the understanding
of the pluralist nature of Malaysian society. This could
be done by appreciating and celebrating multiculturalism
as a virtue. Thus the workshop has propagated that peaceful
values should be introduced early in the curriculum in
order to educate members of society a young age. The
workshop therefore has come up with the following recommendations
to implement peace education at the primary and secondary
level.
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It should be integrated with other
subjects and not as a new subject |
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It should be inculcated into co-curricular
activities through activities such as summer camp
where students from various races can get to know
each other and promote greater understanding among
the various faces |
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The syllabus for peace education
at the primary and secondary level should promoted
universal values and be targeted at teacher’s
training collages, teachers, headmasters, community
leaders and NGOs |
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Designing evaluation mechanisms
to measure the effectiveness of programs introduced |
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The concept of vision school should
be actively propagated as it enables students from
different races to mix freely by sharing common
facilities thus promoting greater understanding |
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The composition of teachers in schools
regardless whether it is a national or parochial
schools should reflect the multi-ethnicity character
of the country |
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The need for a taskforce to co-ordinate
and oversee these recommendations |
A different emphasis has been recommended for the introduction
of peace education at the tertiary level. The rationales
behind the introduction of peace education at this level
are the challenges of globalization, increasing volatility
in a global politics, and inevitability of conflict.
Thus peace education can act as a catalyst for enhancing
greater understanding between the various civilizations
in the world. In order to promote multiculturalism, the
curriculum for peace education at the tertiary level
should stress on developing – knowledge, skills
and attitudes. Knowledge should be concentrated on the
following:
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Theory of peace |
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Ethics |
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Environment |
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Politics |
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Development |
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Sociology |
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Religion |
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Philosophy |
On the other hand, the necessary skills that need to
be acquired are as follows:
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Conflict resolution skills |
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Communication |
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Management – negotiation |
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Social skills |
This is to ensure that students at this level are equipped
with the necessary knowledge and skills that will be
beneficial to them in dealing with the real-world situation.
It is hoped that after going through such as training
students will in turn adopt the following values (attitude)
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Positive |
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Peace |
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Tolerance |
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Empathy |
The implementation can be done at the two levels – undergraduate
and postgraduate. However, short courses can also be
offered. At the undergraduate level, peace education
can be offered as a minor or an elective course. Whereas,
the emphasis at the post-graduated level must be multi-disciplinary
in approach, cater for the regional demands as well as
within the country. It is thus necessary to establish
a centre for peace education in Malaysia with Universiti
Sains Malaysia taking a leading role since no university
within Southeast Asia has offered peace education programs.
The design of the program should be:
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Student centred curriculum or process
based curriculum |
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Community based curriculum so students
would be functional in community |
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The content should concentrate
on community involvement |
Implementation strategies should give more consideration
on preparing students to be functional in the community.
This can be done through role-play, skill enhancing,
and simulation activities. The proposed methods of assessment
are as follows:
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Multiple assessment measures for
assessment of attitude |
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Evaluation of perception |
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Papers tests |
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Project basis – report, research
based |
In conclusion, the introduction of peace education at
both school and tertiary levels is vital to promote racial
and religious harmony in the country. It is therefore
necessary to establish a task-force to look deeply into
the matter and a comprehensive study be done to ascertain
the viability of implementing peace education in Malaysia. |
