Nazia Salarzai
Education boosts the knowledge, skills and behaviors to help people in preventing occurrence of conflict, resolving conflicts peacefully and creating ways for bringing peace.
Education is a primary pillar for preventing armed conflict and violence and saving lives of people. Article 25-A was added to the Pakistan’s Constitution in 2010, to make basic education free for all people. Education promotes peace, by allowing the girls to school, because it is their basic right, and getting basic right itself is a peace. It is therefore a time to strengthen the power of girls’ education for peace.
Girls’ education brings a positive change in her future, the future of her family and her entire community, which resulted in peace. Educated girls try to draw their own conclusions in bringing peace, instead of blindly following the beliefs of others and can be leaders towards positive change and action. Through quality education, girls can raise their voices for change in their communities to solve problems, leading to peace.
Without quality education and peace, girls in the remote villages cannot get education, which is destruction of peace. Educated girls can support their families, which is also a peace. Education reduces poverty, especially when it’s combined with technical training and vocational training programs.
Merged districts have experienced conflict, destruction and dislocation, leaving the civilian population, and particularly its youth and children in a dangerous and vulnerable position. Ask he tribal people about peace, they can explain it well, because when they became internally displaced persons (IDPs) and were leaving their homes and educational institutions. Merged districts remained under decades of isolation, terrorism, and human rights violations. Merged districts can move toward stability, through quality education. Peace, rehabilitation, and resettlement is the dire need of the day.
In merged districts there is no university for male and females. Male can go to college and universities out of the district, but girls cannot have the same opportunity so at this point education comes to an end for them.
Despite increased investments and progress in its education system, gender equality in education has largely remained ignored throughout its history because of terrorism and strict tribal culture.
The number of schools in the merged districts was already low and largely insufficient to meet the education needs of the children of school going age (4-14 years old) half of which are girls. Due to destruction of more than 1,100 schools due to terrorism after 2001, the education was further reduced, particularly for girls who were already more likely to be excluded from school, then how can peace be possible in tribal districts?
Although tribal districts are merged in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, still the peace and peaceful coexistence is very far. According to us, youth falls in three following main categories;
The educated youngsters are going abroad for higher education or job purpose, which is brain drain for us and gains for the host country
The uneducated youngsters are going through human trafficking
The remaining is engaging in smuggling or terrorism
Uneducated youth including boys and girls can be easily brainwashed and misguided. It’s the government’s responsibility to provide quality education and employment opportunities, which will keep them engaged. As we know education is equally important for girls and boys, not educating girls’ costs families and societies more because of the direct impact on early marriages, which is destruction of inner peace. The current situation of the merged districts with multiple issues like, social, cultural and economic, so the government and residents of the these districts are required to ensure that girls have access to education and can contribute in rebuilding and developing their regions.
The change can only come through education. Most of the youth during the militancy war in merged districts got involved in extremism and terrorist activities, just because of lack of education.
According to Malala Yousafzai, one pen is stronger than a weapon.
There is a great talent in the tribal districts youth, if the government provides them standard educational institutes, in this way merged districts can reach their milestone very soon. There is a big need for education to promote peace in merged districts.
It is obvious that education plays a significant role in promoting peaceful coexistence, because education is important for guidance in human’s life. It can be regarded as an eminent medium in changing the paradigm shift in one’s individuality. Generally, education is associated with the process of delivering skill, disseminating merged districts need to recognize and provide chances to use such opportunities for women and girls and mount efforts toward regional stability and growth.
Girls in merged districts are as competent as girls from any other part of our country. Yet, they have limited access to the opportunities to explore their potential and contribute to the stability and prosperity of the region due to the historic, geographic, political, and cultural complexities of the region. The government needs to make girls’ education possible, by ensuring and establishing good institutions at their doorsteps through knowledge and internalizing value. Individuals who are equipped with knowledge can be able to internalize and apply the knowledge in everyday’s life leading to peace. Thus, education is a prime aspect of development of any modern and peaceful society since if there is a deficit of educated people then society will not avail peace.
