Developing policy recommendations from the ground-up by building the capacity of ethnic education entities and civil society organizations as policymakers, and enabling them to articulate their needs with respect to education in the ongoing national dialogue.
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BACKGROUND: Education has a critical role to play in building sustainable peace in Myanmar. Education provides a pathway to prevent and mitigate violence and shape a culture of peace. However, education can also drive conflict when not delivered in conflict sensitive way. In Myanmar, there are issues that need to be addressed at the school/classroom level and at the administrative/systems level in order to make education a force for peace. At the school and classroom level, discrimination, biased curriculum, lack of intercultural competency and critical thinking, and ineffective teaching methods may create conditions that perpetuate conflict. At the administrative and systems level, there is exclusion and inequity in resources and management systems across a fragmented and complex arrangement of government schools, ethnic basic education providers, monastic schools, learning centers, education CSOs, and other non-formal educational organizations. In order to address these challenges, there is a need for all education providers to be supported by education policy that empowers them to deliver conflict sensitive and peace-promoting education. OBJECTIVE: Develop an Education for Peace policy framework and implementation guidelines to make the Myanmar education system conflict sensitive and to provide knowledge, skills, and attitudes that promote peace and national reconciliation. Specific goals
APPROACH: The project consulted with and brought together educational leaders, specifically education CSOs and representatives of ethnic education departments. Baseline information was gathered through initial meetings with CSOs and ethnic education providers. After the initial information gathering phase, Thabyay convened a series of policymaking workshops to develop recommendations for a policy framework and implementation guidelines to promote education for peace and conflict sensitivity. The workshops used participatory dialogue and consensus-based approaches to generate policy priorities. By starting the policy development process from civil society, the project also created channels for diverse voices to be represented and to provide a platform for an Education for Peace policy agenda with broad-based support. Thabyay consolidated all of the workshop findings into a white paper with policy recommendations and implementation guidelines, which will be presented to the National Education Policy Commission. |
RELATED LINKS
The goal of the project is to strengthen a culture of peace and social cohesion in Myanmar through developing policy recommendations to mainstream Education for Peace into national education policy and strategy. 
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REQUEST FOR COMMENTS
on the draft White Paper: Making Education Policy a Force for Peace (download PDF)
Thabyay Education Foundation requests anyone interested in the area where peace, policy and education overlap in the context of Myanmar to comment on the draft White Paper: Making Education Policy a Force for Peace. Comments should be submitted electronically via email to [email protected] or mail at No. 60 Hlaing Myint Moh 2nd Street, Kan Road, Hlaing Township, Yangon.