Accra, March 05, GNA – The Right Reverend Samuel Kofi Osabutey, Greater Accra Regional Chairperson of the National Peace Council, has suggested that peace education be incorporated in the school syllabus for students.
He said the teaching and learning of peace would help inculcate in the youth the necessary attitudes and behaviours for sustainable peace in local communities and the country at large.
Reverend Osabutey said this at the inauguration and training of the Peace Ambassadors Club at the Holy Trinity Cathedral Senior High School (HOTCASS) in Accra.
The Club, which is a project by the National Peace Council through its Greater Accra Regional Office, would train students of HOTCASS to be peace ambassadors to champion peace in their schools and communities.
The project themed: “Promotion of peace through the formation of peace clubs and capacity building of peace ambassadors on conflict prevention, management and resolution,” will run for a year with a focus on conflict prevention and violent extremism, early warnings, principles of dialogue, and consensus-building and conflict analysis.
Reverend Osabutey said they decided to give the students the necessary capacity building and tools to equip them to be agents of change and peace ambassadors in their various communities.
He said: “We have observed that any conflict undertaken is mostly done through the youth, thus, if we don’t adopt them early and train them, it would cause trouble. So, our aim is to start to train these youth early in what brings conflict and how we can stop it.”
“We are using the peace ambassadors club as a foundation to pilot and get the sample, get the real indicators of what could happen. When we start with smaller groups like the club, it will then spread out to other schools,” he added.
Reverend Osabutey said the role of the youth was important in ensuring sustainable peace because they were the most susceptible to the present and future consequences of violence and insecurity.
He said for peace to be sustained, citizens, especially the youth, needed to be “continually” sensitised on the significance of peace in nation-building.
The Reverend Osabutey admonished persons who had the opportunity to address public mediums to be circumspect in their speech in order not to incite violence.
“One thing that incites people against the authority is our speech. So, we would plead with those who are in authority and address people on platforms to tone it down and not to say things that would cause mayhem,” he stressed.
Mr William Dompreh Adjei, Headmaster of HOTCASS, commended the NPC for the initiative to promote peace-building in schools.
He said such clubs would help students to understand the national peace-building process and their role in it.
Stella Kyere, Head Girls Prefect of HOTCASS, said the training would help them in championing peace and conflict resolution in their communities.
GNA