{"id":40422,"date":"2026-10-08T19:35:52","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T17:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=40422"},"modified":"2026-10-08T19:37:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T17:37:26","slug":"sri-lanka-eastern-university-and-the-making-of-a-culture-of-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=40422","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka: Eastern University and the making of a culture of peace"},"content":{"rendered":"
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… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …<\/p>\n

An article by Jehan Perera from the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka<\/a><\/p>\n

There is an important change in the way peace is being understood in\u00a0Sri Lanka. The notion that peacebuilding is not simply the responsibility of governments, politicians and peace organisations,\u00a0but is also a responsibility of educational institutions, appears to\u00a0be permeating the consciousness of at least a section of the academic\u00a0community. This was visible on International Peace Day at an event\u00a0held at Eastern University by the Faculty of Health-Care Sciences. The\u00a0event was unusual not least because the medical and nursing faculty of\u00a0the university had decided that peacebuilding was relevant to its\u00a0academic and professional responsibilities.<\/p>\n

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Peacebuilding has too often been treated as something undertaken after\u00a0conflict, when the fighting has stopped and the immediate task is to rebuild relationships between communities. But peace cannot be\u00a0sustained by governments and peace organisations alone. If it is to become long lasting, the values and practices of peace have to become\u00a0part of the institutions through which a society educates its younger generations. Universities and other educational institutions are\u00a0therefore important to peacebuilding. They are among the places where\u00a0the foundations of a culture of peace can either be built or\u00a0neglected.<\/p>\n

The experience of the Faculty of Health-Care Sciences at Eastern\u00a0University provides a practical example of what this can mean. Led by its Dean, Prof Thillainathan Sathaananthan, the faculty organised an\u00a0event which went beyond the ordinary academic scope of a medical\u00a0faculty. University academics are experts in writing project proposals\u00a0and applying for research grants. On this occasion, the members of the\u00a0Faculty of Health-Care Sciences used those skills to apply for a\u00a0UNESCO grant that they won to conduct an International Peace Day\u00a0event. The significance lies less in the Rs 200,000 grant than in the\u00a0decision to use the university\u2019s institutional capacity and resources\u00a0to invest in peacebuilding. The event at Eastern University needs to\u00a0be understood as more than a successful university programme. It\u00a0represents a possible paradigm shift in peace thinking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Institutional Commitment<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2028The Peace Day event obtained the support of the university\u00a0administration, including Vice Chancellor Prof P Peratheepan, and\u00a0reached out to secondary schools in the vicinity to mobilise their\u00a0attendance. The event itself was meticulously organised. There were\u00a0cultural items including traditional and modern dance and song in the\u00a0three languages, performed by combinations of solo, duet and multiple\u00a0singers, dancers and actors drawn in part from nearby secondary\u00a0schools. There was a panel discussion by senior academics on the\u00a0general theme of peacebuilding and how to prepare for it. A discussion\u00a0among the students followed, where each student spoke on behalf of a\u00a0religion that was not theirs. This is significant because\u00a0peacebuilding cannot remain an idea discussed by specialists at\u00a0conferences. It has to become part of the way institutions educate and\u00a0prepare people for life in a plural society.<\/p>\n

The Faculty of Health-Care Sciences at Eastern University has provided\u00a0a model through its Peace Medicine course modules that were introduced\u00a0to the curricular as a compulsory core course over 10 years ago. Two\u00a0senior academics, Dr Kuveriel Eliyas Karunakaran and Dr Thillainathan\u00a0Sathaananthan, have written a book on \u201cPeace Medicine- A Health Care\u00a0Concern\u201d that was published five years ago. Its Peace Medicine Module\u00a0integrates principles of medical ethics, compassion, equity, social\u00a0justice and community engagement into health education and practice.\u00a0In his introduction, former Vice Chancellor of Eastern University,\u00a0Prof T Jayasingam noted \u201cThis book is an introduction to a theme which\u00a0had already been operating in the Faculty of Health Care Sciences as a\u00a0course.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Article continued in right column)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Questions for this article:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
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What is the relation between peace and education?<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(Article continued from left column)<\/p>\n

Doctors, nurses and health workers know better than anyone the harm\u00a0that war and violence does. They are the people who treat the wounds\u00a0and trauma that violence leaves behind. In a hospital, a patient is\u00a0not asked what their religion or ethnicity is before they are treated.\u00a0Health care is one of the places where peace is practised every day.\u00a0The Faculty has therefore found a way of connecting its professional\u00a0responsibilities with the wider social responsibility of peacebuilding. The question is whether this experience can be replicated throughout the country, at universities and at other\u00a0educational institutions, so that peacebuilding becomes part of the\u00a0consciousness of education itself. If that happens on a sufficient\u00a0scale, it can begin to generate a culture of peace that becomes\u00a0increasingly difficult to reverse.<\/p>\n

Local Action<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2028The Eastern University event corresponded closely to the United\u00a0Nations theme for this year\u2019s International Day of Peace, \u201cInvest in\u00a0Peace \u2013 For Everyone, Everywhere, Every Day\u201d, which honours the\u00a0\u201ceveryday architects of peace\u201d, people driving local action, laying\u00a0the groundwork for stability and building lasting peace from the\u00a0ground up. The emphasis on investment is important. An investment\u00a0means that something is put in: time, courage and resources. There is\u00a0no more violent conflict in Sri Lanka today. But the absence of war\u00a0does not automatically produce a culture of peace. The factors that\u00a0fed the country\u2019s conflict have not disappeared from the world.\u00a0Racism, corruption and the violation of laws and human rights are the\u00a0raw materials of conflict. So too are unresolved grievances,\u00a0discrimination and the failure to recognise the suffering of others.<\/p>\n

A country that does not deal with its past does not escape it. The\u00a0past can return in the next generation. This is why the experience of Eastern University needs to be replicated countrywide, both at\u00a0universities and at other educational institutions. The objective\u00a0should not be to turn every academic discipline into peace studies. Rather, peacebuilding needs to become part of the consciousness of\u00a0education itself. Eastern University shows that a medical faculty can\u00a0develop Peace Medicine. A law faculty can examine the relationship\u00a0between justice, rights and peace. Faculties of education can prepare\u00a0teachers to work in diverse communities, while the humanities and\u00a0social sciences can examine the different narratives through which\u00a0communities understand their histories. Every institution can find its\u00a0own way of making peacebuilding relevant to what it teaches.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka has had many declarations, pledges and programmes in the\u00a0past. What matters is whether these produce changes in behaviour and institutional practice. Peacebuilding requires confronting difficult\u00a0issues rather than avoiding them. It requires respect for different\u00a0identities, but also engagement across those identities. It requires\u00a0dealing with grievances in the present while also addressing\u00a0unresolved issues from the past. It requires truth, accountability,\u00a0reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence. It requires people to\u00a0learn that the rights of another community do not diminish their own\u00a0rights. The International Peace Day event at Eastern University was\u00a0evidence of a change in the way at least some academics in a part of\u00a0the country deeply affected by war are thinking about their\u00a0responsibilities. Peace needs to be invested in and the most important\u00a0investment will be in the minds of those who will inherit the future.<\/p>\n

– – – – – –<\/p>\n

If you wish to make a comment on this article, you may write to coordinator@cpnn-world.org with the title “Comment on (name of article)” and we will put your comment on line. Because of the flood of spam, we have discontinued the direct application of comments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… EDUCATION FOR PEACE … An article by Jehan Perera from the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka There is an important change in the way peace is being understood in\u00a0Sri Lanka. The notion that peacebuilding is not simply the responsibility of governments, politicians and peace organisations,\u00a0but is also a responsibility of educational institutions, appears … Continue reading Sri Lanka: Eastern University and the making of a culture of peace<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,80],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-40422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-for-peace","category-south-asia","tag-south-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40422"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40425,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40422\/revisions\/40425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}