Loreta N. Castro Executive Director, Center for Peace EducationChair, GPPAC-SEA Peace Education Working Group

19 June 2009

The Philippine Context ● Armed Conflicts- 2 major rebel groups:

○ Moro Islamic Liberation Front○ Communist Party of the Phil.- New People’s Army

● Other forms of Violence

○ Structural○ Socio-cultural○ Ecological

In the light of this context, the CPE has adopted this definition:

● Peace Education is essentially, transformative education. ● It cultivates the knowledge base, skills, attitudes and values

that seek to transform people’s mindsets, attitudes and behaviors that in the first place, have either created or exacerbated violent conflicts.

● It seeks this transformation by building awareness and understanding, cultivating concern and challenging personal and social action that will enable people to live, relate and create conditions and systems that actualize nonviolence, justice, environmental care and other peace values.

Various PE initiatives in the Philippines esp. after the nonviolent “People Power Revolt” of 1986.

● Government○ Establishment of a Peace Commission (now called

OPAPP or Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process) with a Peace Education Unit.

○ Declaration of September as Peace Consciousness Month

● Civil Society○ Peace Centers based in schools,○ Community- based peace education done by NGOs○ 1999- establishment of a Peace Education Network

(PEN)

September 2006- Signing of the EO 570

● An Executive Order of the Philippine President

● “Institutionalization of Peace Education in Basic Education and Teacher Education.”

July 2008- Approval of the EO 570 Implementing Guidelines by the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.

The coordinator of Peace Education Network was a member of the group that drafted the guidelines.

● Actual peace education work preceded EO 570 (e.g. Department of Education teacher-trainings in early 2000s, integration into social studies and civics curriculum and publication of sample lessons.)

● The Department of Education has recently drafted a plan of action but we have yet to see how the Commission on Higher Education will move towards implementation of the EO.

● A systematic evaluation and monitoring mechanism have not yet been put in place.

● The only known PE evaluation was a civil society initiative done in 2004. It sought to document existing PE initiatives of selected academic institutions and to study the impact of peace-focused courses on students’ attitudes.

● The implementation of EO 570 after July 2008○ Localized, e.g. DepEd Region X, Bicol Consortium on

Peace Education and Development○ Collaboration of CSOs and government agencies such

as OPAPP, DepEd and UNDP (Act for Peace Program)

As for Teacher Preparation, there is no macro-level implementation yet, but:

● there are a few colleges and universities that have included Peace Education as a required subject in the Teacher Education curriculum.

● there are in-service teacher-trainings happening in individual schools as well as those organized by the Department of Education and OPAPP where often CPE has provided the training component.

CPE’s in-service teacher-training workshops: Topics

● A Holistic Understanding of Peace and Violence ● Faith and Spiritual Traditions as Resources for Peace● Peace Education: An Overview of its Rationale, Content and

Process

● Peace Education Theme 1: Upholding Human Dignity ● Peace Education Theme 2: Challenging Prejudice and Building

Tolerance● Peace Education Theme 3: Promoting Nonviolence● Peace Education Theme 4: Challenging the War System● Peace Education Theme 5: Resolving Conflicts● Peace Education Theme 6: Sharing the Earth’s Resources● Peace Education Theme 7: Cultivating Inner Peace

● Teaching-Learning Approaches and Strategies ● Attributes of a Peace Educator● The Whole School/Institutional Transformation Approach

Signs of Hope

● Motivated core of people from both government and civil society who collaborate towards the promotion of Peace Education and the implementation of EO 570

● Material and moral support and cooperation being provided by UN-related agencies (UNDP, UNICEF, UNESCO) and international networks (INCREPE, GPPAC, GCPE)

When you want to go faster, go alone. When you want to go farther, work together.

-An African Proverb