A National Dialogue is going to be held on November 17, 2008 in Lahore at the Children’s Library Complex. This is a collaborative venture between ITA and the United States Institute of Peace (USIP).
In September 2007, a journey began across the country to explore possibilities of connecting our young students in schools (public and private/ Urdu and English medium) for national harmony and peace. There was a deep sense of frustration that whilst peace across countries is perhaps on the mend the peace within lies deeply fractured. Our concern was that there are minimal efforts to bring our young together, to acknowledge and celebrate diversity and history, to talk about the issues of society and state, about the attributes of new citizenship and respect for human rights, to acknowledge cultural and social diversity as a basis for common and multiple identities, without undermining national loyalty.
In the past 12 months a great deal has happened. The target schools were identified (10) in four capital cities of each province, 40 children of grades 7-10 wrote essays on diverse topics, they came together to meet each other for the first time face to face from all provinces and share issues of concern regarding rights, citizenship, diversity, poverty, and sources of conflict; they participated in a pre perception survey to be followed up with a post perception survey; attended a two day workshop in each city to bond together and explore these ideas through art/poster making, debates, writing essays, communicating through blogs on the computer and be able express their ideas more freely. The teachers were provide 6 days training to engage with students on vital issues of democracy, rights, conflict and citizenship in order to sustain the initiative in schools and classrooms. (www.itacec.org)
The national dialogue on November 17th will be preceded on November 16th as a day of open learning by the children and teachers in the city of Lahore to explore diversity of faiths and architecture, seeking harmony in social spaces and creative expression. The exposure for young learners and teachers is to experience learning without frontiers, connecting with local history for a better understanding of today.
The national dialogue will be an opportunity to share the outputs of the year long experiment and to seek ways of influencing our approaches to curriculum, textbooks, teaching learning practices in core areas of diversity, rights, citizenship and national harmony.
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