Intersections | Winter 2015
Despite the challenges, there is a growing
consensus at all levels that schools should be
a safe place for children and their community.
There is also strong evidence to demonstrate
that ‘the school’ has a transformative potential
in peacebuilding and state building and can be a
catalyst, more specifically as a zone of stability
and non-violence and/or disaster risk reduction
and resilience. In the search for lasting peace,
practitioners and researchers increasingly
recognize that education can help create a
culture of peace and mutual respect.
It is important to think about ‘education’ in its
broadest sense, and its potential as a response
to violent conflict and fragility. Primary-level
education as a basic human right forms a priority
for donors and agencies, but greater attention is
also needed at the secondary and higher levels
alongside non-formal education and vocational
training for youth in order to address some of the
root causes of conflict and fragility. As the Italian
educator and physician, Maria Montessori, wrote
in 1949, “[e]stablishing lasting peace is the work
of education; all politics can do is keep us out
of war.”
Despite the demands for strengthened education
in FCAS and the evidence that it can create
stability and help build peace, the international
donor community has yet to provide adequate
funding. Save the Children (2009) noted that
FCAS only receive a quarter of their basic
education aid, despite the fact that they are
home to as many as half of t