Peace Education Tour

Peace Education Tour:

This project is aimed to heighten the practical learning in a student of Gati VDC about different ethnic groups, cultures, and religions followed in Nepal through a peace education tour. Since 2017, Namaste Nepal has been organising a peace education tour for grade 8 students from Gati VDC, funded by Imagine Peace, South Korea. Imagine Peace; South Korea is a network of people who work for peace in various areas such as culture, arts, education, citizens’ movement, and publications that have provided financial support for the project. Education institute is a great platform where one can begin to spread peace from the education they get from their surroundings. Human memory is picture-oriented and not word oriented.” This is the central concept behind an education tour. Peace education tours would provide an opportunity to enhance students’ knowledge and help them see the clear picture of the theoretical things they have learned so far.

Education institute is a great platform where one can begin to spread peace from the education they get from their surroundings. Human memory is picture-oriented and not word oriented. Nepal is a heterogeneous country that contains multi- cultures, multi-community, multi-language, multi-religion, and multi-region, so it’s a big challenge to maintain harmony and calm conditions. This peace education project had been designed to provide lessons about understanding and appreciating multi-culture residing in Nepal, social harmony, and peace for the student who could be the change maker of the society. This project also aims to heighten the practical learning in students of Gati Valley about different ethnic groups, cultures, and religions followed in Nepal through a peace education tour. Peace education tours would provide an opportunity to enhance the knowledge of students and can help them to see the clear picture of the theoretical things they have learned so far. Peace education is learning the values, religion, and living style of people from different ethnic groups and spreading the message for peace by awakening people to live in mutual harmony. In this project, students are privileged to visit several places in Nepal and learn through observation and interaction with locals. Every student has developed a keen interest in learning by participating and exploring themselves by visiting different places we felt we must support those students as part of their learning process.

The students who only learn from textbooks are totally unaware of the outer scenario of Nepal. This project could be the appropriate platform for the student to learn besides the textbook. The project has chosen class 8 students to implement these project activities because the age group of this class is seeking proper guidance and having plenty of time to build new concepts. It’s a time of preparing a particular perspective in their mind. Apart from just learning from books about Nepal, the students get to explore the world of Nepal by participating in a peace education excursion.

The objective of the project

To introduce a distinct program in the school curriculum to understand an alternate lifestyle and appreciate the multi-culture of Nepal.
To provide knowledge to students about maintaining social harmony.
To document a report of the travel and also collect unique thematic showpieces in the school library.

The expected outcome of the peace education tour

The major outcomes from the peace education tour are as follows:

A mutual friendship between students and also the teachers
Learn conflict resolution skill
A student could enjoy and get refreshed from the visit.
A student could learn the multi-culture, lifestyle, educating system, and peace-related monuments that exist in different places of Nepal.
A student could experience a new scenario of western Nepal.
The student could learn at least one topic while travelling and observing different scenarios.
The student could share their views and opinions on what they want from the school environment.
The student could learn to report writing skills based on their observation and documentation of reports with picture arrangement.

Destination for the peace education tour:

Sight-seeing at world heritage sites of Kathmandu,
The Tharu settlement, Tharu museum, Tharu culture centre,
Chitwan National park,
Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha (the light of Asia), Maya Devi Temple,
Madrasa (Muslim holy book teaching institute),
Magar community in Syangja district,
Pokhara.

Activities in detail:

Program 1: Orientation on peace education tour and team building workshop

Orientation on the subject of peace by peace education expert

Before students leave for the tour, they shall have detailed orientation on report writing skills, travel diary, and overall matters to present in written form. Another student shall learn about the precautionary measures while taking a hike, bag pack, and general photography skills. The participants in the orientation will be students of Class 8 and teachers of Shree Kali Devi Secondary School, Shree Gorakhnath Basic School, and Shree Khada Devi Basic School. The class teacher of grade 8 and the Social studies teacher will be responsible for peace education. There will be a peace education expert to facilitate and instruct on peace education tours. Peace education experts explain the program schedule and planning for the tour during orientation, which will be at the end of each academic session.

Team building activity and group formation

In team-building activities, the students learn about the importance of teamwork. Also, the formation of a logistic management group, reporting group, finance group, and photography group will take place during the team building workshop. The experts explain the duties and responsibilities of the entire group on the excursion. The students from each group are supposed to take their responsibility sincerely.

Program 2: Excursion/Travel and Study

Organizing a peace education tour

Students shall focus on making friends around the visited area, learn different cultures, rituals, and traditions, and observe the lifestyle of different communities. Thus, on the first day of the tour, students shall visit the Tharu settlement, Tharu museum, Tharu culture centre, Chitwan National Park, and canoe Ride on the Rapti River run along Chitwan National Park. The second destination of the tour will take place at Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha (the light of Asia), Maya Devi Temple, On the same day, the team shall visit several peace-related monasteries built in the Lumbini Development area. The next day students shall visit and learn about the Madrasa (Muslim holy book teaching institute), a totally different education school generally found in Nepal. Students can share about the education system they have had since childhood. After learning about Muslim culture, the team will visit the Magar community to learn about Magar the culture and lifestyle in Syangja District. The next place to visit will be Pokhara, a naturally blessed place in Nepal. The team shall visit Shanti stupa, peace pagoda, David Falls, Gupteshor Mahadev, and Fewa Lake of Pokhara. The final destination of the tour will be Kathmandu, and students shall visit some world heritage sites listed by UNESCO and back to Gati Valley.

The participating students are supposed to write a diary on their every visit during their tour. And the final reports from the reporting group about their tour visit will be given to the school library along with the name list of the participants in the tour. Moreover, the annual peace education excursions schedule will be included in the School calendar.

Program 3: Reflection with student/ sharing session in the assembly and Library Set up

Reflection with student/ sharing session

As well the sharing will be done through the thematic talent show. The students reflect on learning about other cultures, religions, and living styles through drama performances and dance.

Program 4: Library setup

The concept behind the library setup is to represent the culture and lifestyle learned by students from the peace education tour. The final report prepared by the reporting group student of peace education tour will be placed in the library. This could help students from other grades to learn more about the diverse culture, religion, and lifestyle of the people in Nepal from the report. Also, the material bought during the tour representing the culture of Tharu, Gurung, and other religions will be exhibited in the library of the three respective schools.