News
UNESCO organizes training for Teachers and Parents on PVE-E in Al Anbar and Ninewa with its Partners
12 鈥 21 September 2021: UNESCO and partners (ZOA, Iraq Institution for Development (IID), and Directorates of Education) organized training activities to strengthen the capacities of 194 teachers and 144 parents (128 females) on Prevention of Violent Extremism through Education (PVE-E) in Al Anbar and Ninewa Governorates. The Master Trainers trained by UNESCO led the training workshops, which equipped teachers and parents with the educational tools to cultivate learners鈥 resilience against violent extremism in the schools, homes and wider community.
Context:
After two years, COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc, particularly on the education sector including in Iraq. The response strategies and measures against COVID-19 while being critical have also interrupted stabilization activities and worsened access to education, quality of civic engagement, and overall development, 鈥媏specially in transitional contexts like Iraq. Because of this systemic disruption, . Violent extremists have taken advantage of anxiety, despair, loneliness, and the overall uncertainty to ramp up recruitments. .
Hence, more than ever, learners and education actors such as teachers, school principals and parents need more support to cultivate resilience against the lures of violent extremism that is resurfacing. To leave these vulnerable groups now will not only be an impediment to the healing process but also runs the risk of sowing the seeds for more violence in the future. It is for this reason, and the overall goal of building the defenses of peace in the minds of men and women, that UNESCO and partners are organizing capacity building activities for education actors under the Gendered Approach to Preventing Violent Extremism through Education in Al Anbar and Ninewa governorates in Iraq.
Teachers participating in the PVE-E training
The workshops:
Intensive seven half-days training on PVE-E was organized for primary school teachers in Ninewa and Al Anbar governorates to better understand what violent extremism is, what drives it, and its manifestations. In addition to concrete case studies from daily life to aid the embodiment of these concepts in the learners鈥 mind, were introduced to play-based activities that they can integrate in their daily interaction with learners to cultivate, cognitive, behavioral and socio-emotional competencies - Global Citizenship skills to promote positive values like tolerance, non-violence and co-existence.
As the home and social environment have a significant impact on children鈥檚 learning and development, a one-day training was organized in cooperation with the Ministry of Education in Al Anbar to cultivate parents鈥 skills necessary to help them implement the proposed play-based activities to foster resilience against the drivers of violent extremism in their homes and the wider community. The workshop also familiarized parents with concrete ways of working with teachers to co-create an environment of collaboration necessary for conducive learning and development of the child.
A master trainer explains the drivers of violent extremism
As in the previous workshops, the engagement of the teachers and the parents, and their assessment of the workshop was rated 鈥渕ore than satisfactory鈥. They felt that the workshop introduced them to terms such as violent extremism and provided them with the knowledge tools to adapt and utilize this in their own day-to-day activities 鈥 a topic that was initially fuzzy, and which they approached with caution. Specifically, they felt that learning through the play-based activities was fun and engaging, and something that they can take back to their homes and use to strengthen relationships with their children, teachers, and other school staff.
Parents participating in the PVE-E training
Next steps:
UNESCO is committed to work and support the Ministry of Education as well as the Implementation Partners (ZOA and IID) to ensuring that the trainings are a part of an ongoing journey to strengthen the capacities of teachers, parents, principals, and other schools鈥 administrators to cultivate resilience among learners 鈥 and strengthen overall school systems for sustainable peace. In the following project period, UNESCO and partners will work on the following:
- Establishing #CommunitiesForPeace groups on social media platforms to enable the educational actors to stay in touch, continue to learn from each other, and eventually work together to implement the play-based activities in their classrooms, homes, and schools.
- GA PVE-E trainings for the educational sectors (principles, school administrators, school supervisors and HE leader students) to strengthen their abilities to addressing the VE drivers.
- Psychosocial support sessions for education actors.
- Additional training activities for master trainers for secondary schools.
More information:
