Dear Friends,
Education is supposed to be based on universal human values, peace, harmony and co-existence. Madam Maria Montessori said that “establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.” Unfortunately, the concept of peace and harmony is absent from the educational content as well as in academic institutions, families, society and national- international life. Conflict, violence, destructive behaviors are alarmingly high. Textbooks are often written on conflict-based & materialistic perspectives, competitive rivalry, survival of the fittest, cut-throat social ideologies, profit oriented individualistic economic behavior as well as high uncertainty and corruption in national-international life. Insecurities, inequities, conflicts, violence, irresponsible and unharmonious conduct based on  political,  racial,  ethnic,  and  religious  conflicts  are  bringing  untold  tragedies  to  the  masses  of humanity.

The search for everlasting peace and harmony has been mankind’s biggest and incessant quest. Even texts on war and its strategies show a desire for peace. Sun Tzu in his book “The Art of War” says ‘The objective of all wars is peace’. Religious dogmas despite their great contribution to growth of human civilization have also failed collectively and individually to provide a solution to this problem. Today, peace and harmony are the most important issues on global, national, and regional agendas of education.

 This seminar will focus on what we as responsible humans can do to offer to our future generation an education which leads to culture of peace and harmony. The focus of the seminar is to create the atmosphere to  learn  from  one  another  the  principles  and  methodologies  of  peace & harmony based  Teacher education for creating  safe  and  healthy  learning  environments. Also, it is an attempt to equip future teachers with skills to create harmonious, empathetic, compassionate, forgiving, and good relationships among students to foster deep values of social co-existence. Mahatma Gandhi rightly said that "If we wish to create lasting peace we must begin with the children".  Therefore it is important to promote a culture of peace in academic & social organizations as well as modify behavioral aspects of staff, teachers and the students of teacher’s training courses.

We have invited educators, government officials and civic leaders, academics, and peace-education  practitioners  to  review  the  latest  developments  in  the  emerging  field  of  peace education;  to  consult  together  on  how  these  new  insights  could  be  incorporated  into  education policies, priorities, and curricula; and to consider how these insights could be translated into practical pedagogical applications in classrooms, schools, and through this into families.  On a more specific basis, the conference offers an opportunity to educators, policymakers, and civic leaders   to consult on the relevance of teachers’ education for the development of peace and harmony in the society at large.

Your participation and contribution to the deliberations will encourage us in our efforts towards nurturing a culture of peace.