… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …
An article from Cyprus Mail (reprinted by permission)
Teachers from both sides of the divide attended two seminars on peace education on Saturday organised by the Bicommunal Technical Committee on Education.
In total 100 teachers – 50 Greek Cypriots and 50 Turkish Cypriots – participated in two bicommunal training sessions by international experts which took place at the Home for Cooperation in the Nicosia buffer zone.
Can Cyprus be reunited in peace?
What is the relation between peace and education?
The co-chairs of the committee, Dr Meltem Onurkan Samani and Dr Michalinos Zembylas also took part in the teacher training that is part of the ‘Imagine’ peace education programme. Participants were trained on how to promote peace, anti-racism and human rights through education.
This is a new initiative introduced during the current academic year by the committee. The committee was established after the agreement between the two leaders in December 2015, to implement confidence-building measures in the two educational systems. Part of the committee’s mandate is to promote contact and cooperation between students and educators from the two communities.
“The overall aim of the teacher training is to help increase contact and cooperation between teachers of the two communities in Cyprus, based on a holistic understanding of developing their knowledge, skills and attitudes on education for a culture of peace and non-violence,” a written statement said.
So far, 10 mono-communal training sessions have taken place with 250 teachers participating from all areas across the island.
‘Imagine’ is under the auspices of the Bi-Communal Technical Committee of Education and implemented by the Association for Historical Dialogue and Research (AHDR) and the Home for Cooperation (H4C) with the support of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany and the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus.