Filtered By: Topstories
News

OPAPP seeks integration of peace education in university curriculum


The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) on Wednesday urged the integration of peace education into the curriculum of universities across the country “to prevent and counter violent extremism and communist insurgency.”

The OPAPP seeks to strengthen Executive Order 570 signed in 2006 by then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, which institutionalized peace education in basic and teacher education.

“Peace education should be comprehensive and multi-pronged [...] We are partnering with different universities so that peacebuilding will be part of the major curriculum in all subjects that we have,” Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. said during a forum in San Beda University Manila.

Galvez added that peace education will make the youth and indigenous peoples (IP) less susceptible to falling prey to extremist ideologies.

“We organize the IPs and teach them how to defend themselves so they can be the ones to police their own communities. In order to defend the IPs, we have to educate them. We are now [tapping the assistance] of schools,” he said.

Under EO 570, the Department of Education is required to “mainstream peace education in the basic formal and non-formal education curriculum” while the Commission on Higher Education is mandated to “introduce and mainstream peace education in teacher education.”

In 2018, the Bangsamoro Transition Commission listed peace education as one of its top priorities in the new Bangsamoro Government. —LDF, GMA News

LOADING CONTENT