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| Sunday, 22 December 2002 |
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School children to take peace message home to parents - Suranimala Rajapakse Sri Lankan schools will play a pivotal role in promoting and propagating the message of peace, Minister of School Education Suranimala Rajapakse said at the launching of Peace, a book of creative writing by student-teachers of Sri Lanka's National Colleges of Education on December 15th. "Schools should make use of the book Peace put out today and the peace message should also be conveyed to the parental community through schools. It is through education that we can best take this message to the community", Minister Rajapakse said addressing a large gathering of student-teachers and students at the Navarangahala in Colombo. Peace is a unique publication consisting of more than 50 stories, poems, essays and songs in Sinhala, Tamil and English on issues related to peace, peace eduction and conflict transformation, all flowing from the experiences of young student-teachers. The book is a joint effort by the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Education and Cultural Affairs and the National Institute of Education supported by the Basic Education Sector Programme. This programme is financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and implemented with technical assistance of the German Development Cooperation (GTZ). Five thousand copies of the book will be distributed to all National Colleges of Education, related internship schools, Teacher Centers and libraries. The launch was also attended by Dr. Tania Roediger-Vorwerk of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Addressing the audience, Dr. Vorwerk mentioned her participation in the recent Oslo Conference and said the German government as willing to allocate another three million Euro as a further response to immediate Sri Lankan needs, in addition to the commitment of more than 25 million Euro for the ongoing two-year period. Conflict-stricken areas have already benefited through rehabilitation measures in the field of education. Dr. G. D. Gunawardena, Director General, National Institute of Education emphasised that children could be positively influenced towards a peaceful co-existence at home, school and religious institutions which serve as powerful channels. Dr. Gerhard Huck of the GTZ who is the Deputy Programme Manager of the Basic Education Sector Programme said that the book launch itself would create intercultural learning opportunities because participants from all communities were involved. Intercultural programmes from Ruhuna and Jaffna National Colleges of Education, Kandy (Girls' High School) and Trincomalee (St. Mary's College) provided opportunities for student-teachers and pupils to put peace-making into practice, both in the educational setting and in the wider community. He also mentioned that one of the amazing achievements of this venture was the fact that some of the creative writings of student-teachers have already been integrated in the Primary Pre-Service Teacher Education Course being implemented in 12 National Colleges of Education. |
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