Tolerance through education

Address by Monitoring Education Minister Mohan Lal Grero, titled ‘Promoting moderation, tolerance and co-existence through education’, National Conference on the Role of Education in Reconciliation at the Kadirgamar Institute, March 13, 2012

The theme of my speech today is promoting moderation, tolerance and co-existence through education. I'm afraid my speech is going to be purely academic. Learning moderation, tolerance and co-existence through education is probably one of the major issues in education today. The contemporary world is too often a world of violence that belies the hope that some people place in human progress. There has always been conflict throughout history, but new factors are facilitating the risk, in particular the extraordinary capacity of humanity for self-destruction that has been created in the course of the 20th century.

Through the media, the general public is becoming an important observer, even the hostage, of those who create and maintain conflict.

Education has up to now not been able to alleviate this poor state of affairs. But it is possible to device a form of education which might make it possible to avoid conflicts or resolve them peacefully, by developing the quality of respect in individuals’ towards people of different cultures and their spiritual values.

The idea of teaching 'non-violence' in schools is laudable, even if it is only one means among many for combating the prejudices that lead to conflict. It is a difficult task since people very naturally tend to over value their own qualities.

They stand very high in their own estimation and those of their group as well, and harbour prejudices against others. Furthermore, the general climate of competition that is at present a characteristic of economic activity within, and above all, between nations, tends to give priority to the competitive spirit and individual success. Such competition now amounts to ruthless economic warfare and to a tension between the rich and poor, between nations around the world and is exacerbating rivalry. It is regrettable that education sometimes helps to maintain this climate. How can we do better?

Different groups

Experiences show that to reduce this risk it is not enough to only organize contact, as Professor Gunaratna said. Contact is important but to organize contact and communication between members of different groups, for example schools shared by several ethnic groups or religions, is more important. It is the different groups that are in competition, due to the unequal status in the environment they share. Therefore, sometimes such contact can on the contrary inflame latent tensions and degenerate into conflicts.

On the other hand, if contact takes place in an egalitarian context and there are common objectives and shared purposes, prejudices and latent hostilities can dwindle and give way to more relaxed cooperation and even friendships sometimes. It would seem therefore that education must take two complimentary paths.

On one level the gradual discovery of others and on another, the experience of shared purposes throughout life which seems to be a very prudent way of avoiding latent conflicts.

The task of education is to teach at once and the same time, the diversity of the human race and create an awareness of similarities between us and the interdependence of all human beings.

From early childhood, schools must therefore take every opportunity to teach these things. Some subjects are particularly suited for this task. If one is to understand the other, one must first know one's self to give children and young people an accurate view of the world.

Education, be it in school, in the family or community must first help them to understand who they are. Only then would they be able to genuinely put themselves into other people's shoes and understand their reactions.

Cultural activities

Developing such empathy in schools bears fruit in terms of social behaviour throughout life. For example, by teaching young people to adopt the point of view of other ethnic or religious groups, the lack of understanding that leads to hatred and violence among adults can be avoided.

The teaching of the history of religions and customs can thus serve as a useful benchmark for future behaviour. Finally, the actual form of teaching must not run counter to the acknowledgement of others. Teachers whose dogmatic approach stifles pupils' curiosity or critical thinking spirit, instead of inculcating those qualities in them, can do more harm than good.

If teachers forget that they are role models, their attitude may forever weaken their pupils' ability to be receptive to others and face the inevitable tension between people, groups and nations.

Encountering others through dialogue and debate is one of the tools needed in the current education system. When people work together on rewarding projects which take them out of their usual routines, as very correctly mentioned by Prof. Rohan Gunaratna, differences and conflicts between individuals tend to fade to the background and sometimes may even disappear. People derive a new identity from such projects, so that it is possible to go beyond individuality and highlight what people have in common rather than the differences between them.

Humanitarian work

In many cases tension between social classes and nationalities have, in the end, been transformed to unity because of the common effort involved, for example in sports. Similarly, where work is concerned many ventures would never have been successfully completed if conflicts commonly found in hierarchical organizations are transcended by a shared purpose.

Formal education must therefore provide enough time and opportunity in its programme to introduce the young from childhood to co-operate through participation in sports or in cultural activities and also participation in social activities such as neighbourhood innovation, helping the underprivileged, humanitarian work, inter-generational assistance, etc.

Other educational organizations and statutory bodies must take over where schools leave off.

In addition, in everyday school life the involvement of teachers and pupils in joint undertakings could provide initiation to a way of resolving conflicts and a benchmark for teachings to be referred in the future, while at the same time enhancing mutual respect and long lasting harmony.