DepEd: Peace education mainstreamed in schools

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JULY 24, 2008

Peace education mainstreamed in schools

The ways of peace will now be taught in public schools and be incorporated in teacher education – part of the government’s initiative to build and nurture a climate conducive to peace through education.

This develops as the Department of Education today joins other agencies and civil
representatives in the signing of the implementing rules and regulation (IRR) for Executive Order 570: Institutionalizing Peace Education in Basic Education and Teacher Education.

The inter-agency Technical Working Group (TWG), composed of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), DepEd, Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) and civil society representatives, helped draft the IRR.

DepEd and OPAPP have earlier developed elementary and high school peace education
exemplars as a way of mainstreaming peace education in the basic formal and non-formal education curriculum.

CHEd, meanwhile, shall introduce and institutionalize peace education among teachers through pre-service and in-service training.

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said, “DepEd will incorporate peace education where it matters because we believe in the power of education to change the mindset of people towards peace. “He assured that instructional materials will also be developed, produced, and disseminated as additional tools while the adaptation and adoption of video peace modules through a series of workshops will also be strengthened.

The TWG has refined the IRR draft after two major consultations: the Mindanao-wide
Consultation on Peace Education, organized by the Mindanao Peace Education Forum
(MinPEF) and the National Consultation Workshop on EO 570, organized by OPAPP and TWG.

According to EO 570, DepEd will serve as co-chair of the coordinating structure. It will spearhead the mainstreaming peace education concepts, skills and values in the learning content of the basic education and alternative learning systems (ALS).

It is tasked to encourage and nurture local peace initiatives in schools, ALS local systems and communities and to organize peace education learning circles/teams in the region, division and school level.

“The peace problems are very complex and no one has all the answers. However, everyone can do something in his or her little way to bring us a step closer to the attainment of peace,” he stressed.
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