The role of education in peacebuilding:

the case of Sierra Leone

Education in Peacebuilding Global Monitoring Report

Sierra Leone

Drivers of conflict

Rationale 1

Education Protects Children ‘Quality education provides physical,

psychosocial and cognitive protection’ (INEE 2011)

Rapid Response Education Programme (RREP) Six-month programme for those children ‘most affected’ Six Modules

- Literacy - Religious Moral Education- Numeracy - Physical Health Education- Trauma Healing - Peace and Human Rights

13529 children completed the programme between 1999-2002

Challenges Schools not necessarily a ‘safe place’ Non-evidence based programming

Rationale 2

Training Provides Routes Other Than Violence‘Through disarmament and demobilization, the process is meant to remove weapons – and war itself – as a means of livelihood and, through the reintegration process, to replace these livelihoods with ones that contribute to stability, peace and growth’ (Paulson 2009: 836)

DDR Occurred in three phases between 1998-2002 76000 combatants disarmed

Challenges Potential for the re-creation of grievances

through unfulfilled promises Assumes economically driven root to conflict;

does not resolve social injustices or grievances

Rationale 3

Education Re-establishes Normality ‘Education can help children return to a sense of

stability, normality and confidence’ (INEE 2010)

‘Formal education has a particular symbolic significance for many communities that helps to restore faith in the state’ (Comic Relief 2011)

SABABU School Rehabilitation Project (2003-2007) Two Components:

• Achieve basic operational levels in at least 50% of schools in target districts

• Enhance institutional capacity of MEST Funds provided to Service Providers to contract

local builders

Challenges NGO/INGO ‘Branding’ Return to normality; a return to the pre-conditions

for war?

Rationale 4: strand 1

Education Helps Make Up Lost Ground ‘Where the opportunity of education has been

lost due to conflict, it is not just a loss to the individual, but a loss of social capital and the capacity of a society to recover from the conflict’ (Smith 2010)

Rationale 4 : strand 2

Education Helps Make Up Lost Ground• A more educated population is a more peaceful one:

• ‘As educated people have more to lose economically, they are less likely to risk death or imprisonment by taking part in war’ (Collier 2000)

• Education can inculcate an ability to critically analyse information, leaving people less open to manipulation by rebel leaders.

Complimentary Rapid Education for Primary Schools (CREPS) ALP aimed at increasing access to the formal

system Allows children (age 10-14) to finish schooling in

3 years instead of 6 Follow curriculum of core subjects most essential

to passing NPSE

Challenges Parallel/Competitive system Education limited to literacy/numeracy If changes are not made at a sustainable rate

then we are simply recreating pre-conditions of war, this time at a faster rate and on a broader scale

Rationale 5Education Contributes to Social Transformation‘Cultivating an ‘‘infrastructure for peace’’ means that we are not merely interested in ‘‘ending’’ something that is not desired. We are oriented toward the building of relationships that in their totality form new patterns, processes and structures’ (Lederach 1997)Through, for example, inclusionary reforms to the system itself and the values it transmits as a means of socialization, education can transform power relations and tackle social injustices

Emerging Issues (EI) A course aimed at tackling a number of social

issues deemed important to Sierra Leone and its development:

- Human Rights - Civics and Democracy- Gender - Health and Environment- Principles of Pedagogy

Three versions Required course unit for each year of three year

full time pre-service teacher training course Integrated into three year Distance Education

Programme Four-week intensive in-service training for

qualified teachers

Challenges Skewing of priorities Social transformation through curriculum rather

than education policy, for example, decentralisation.

Conclusions The International Community is not

learning lessons regarding impact International organisations are pushing

their own agendas rather than responding to local needs

Is there a genuine commitment to conflict transformation through peacebuilding?