Contexts and Concepts of Peace Education

Dr Jean Damascene Gasanabo, the Director General in charge of documentation and research at the National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide in Rwanda shares his understanding on the contexts and concepts of Peace Education during the Aegis Trust Peace Education Colloquium, in Kigali 20-22 February 2017.

In the past 3 years, Aegis Trust, in the framework of its Rwanda Peace Education Program (RPEP) and Genocide Research and Reconciliation Programme (GRRP), has contributed to sharing Peace Education approaches with more than 63,000 educators, young Rwandans and members of communities at local level at large.

Aegis Trust and its partners have used Learner-Centered, Participatory, Active and Interactive methods and adopted a storytelling approach to convey peace building messages to the beneficiaries. The Rwanda Peace Education and Genocide Research and Reconciliation Programmes have resulted in considerable shifts in empathy, trust, critical thinking and personal responsibility in beneficiaries and their communities. A major achievement resulting from the consortium’s advocacy has been that the Government of Rwanda through the Ministry of Education has integrated Peace Education into the school curriculum, commencing in the 2016 academic year. Subsequently, the University of Rwanda College of Education (UR-CE) and the affiliated Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) are now also in the process of revising their academic programs and curricula.

While Aegis Trust is supporting the integration of peace and values education in the national curriculum, it organized a high-level colloquium to share and discuss existing tools, methodology and content contributing to a stronger evidence base for Peace Education with experts and practitioners from Rwanda and beyond.