Human Rights Education in Asian Schools Volume IX

South Asia Workshop on Human Rights Education in Schools

    HURIGHTS OSAKA organized the workshop in partnership with the Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution of the Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, India.

    The workshop, designed for curriculum developers of the Ministry of Education, had the following objectives:

• To review international human rights standards, focusing on basic human rights documents including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child;
• To review experiences in India, Japan and the Philippines on integrating human rights education into the school curriculum;
• To undertake practical exercises on integrating human rights education into the school curriculum.

    Mr. Yoshio Kawashima, Director of HURIGHTS OSAKA,^[3] in his opening message stressed the importance of sharing ideas and experiences in the workshop. He said that while

this workshop is meant to train the participants, it is also significantly designed to facilitate the exploration of their wisdom and experience. It is therefore our fervent wish that this short threeday gathering would focus on sharing of ideas and experiences, reflecting on them in light of human rights principles, and developing sample curriculums that integrate international human rights standards.

    Ms. Radha Kumar, Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution of Jamia Millia Islamia, lamented the increasing number of human rights violations cases brought about by the "war on terror" as well as the weakening of the international human rights institutions particularly the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. She stressed the need for the strengthening of human rights education to counter this situation.

    The workshop proper started with the presentation on the international and regional contexts of the workshop. Mr. Jefferson R. Plantilla of HURIGHTS OSAKA presented some of the international developments that support human rights education including the United Nations (UN) Decade for Human Rights Education, the UNESCO conferences and the UN World Programme for Human Rights Education. He pointed out that there are also a number of regional activities such as the annual workshop on Regional Cooperation for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the Asia-Pacific organized by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF) organized by the national human rights institutions in the region. These two annual regional human rights activities declare support for human rights education. He also stressed that South Asian countries under the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) have signed two major human rights instruments (regarding women and girls^[4]) which call for efforts to increase public awareness on human rights. He therefore emphasized that the workshop supports all the international, regional and subregional initiatives on human rights or human rights education.
nbsp;   Ms. Zenaida Reyes of the Philippine Normal University, facilitated the session on the participants' concerns or issues about human rights. Most participants raised the problem of making human rights a reality. They cite the obstacles toward the realization of human rights in the school, at home, in the community and in the country as a whole. Some participants expressed concern about the lack of understanding of duties in addition to the understanding of human rights. Others expressed the problem emanating from the education system which is getting more competitive and focused on language, mathematics and science and very little on social issues such as human rights. They see this situation as a major obstacle to integrating human rights education into the school curriculum. The following issues came out in the discussion

• Conflict between culture, rights, duties
• Problem of adherence to human rights
• Violence in schools between teachers and students, including corporal punishment
• Less integration between education policies and teacher education resulting in lack of simultaneous change in teacher education whenever education policies are changed
• Rights of teachers
• Gap between human rights theory and practice that should be filled
• Lack of mention of human rights in the textbooks
• Inadequate funds for the education system
• Psychological background of human rights problems
• Training of teachers before introduction of new curriculum
• Need for teachers to share experiences, rather than merely teach something, which inculcates the kind of attitude and awareness in students
• Discrimination against certain sections of society
• Four major problems of school education - inequality, discrimination, non-use of mother tongue, non-realization of education as fundamental right
• Social Justice
• Skills that school education should promote - communication skills, computer literacy
• Monitoring of violations of anti-discrimination rules and inclusive education
• Human rights being part of education and should not be isolated from other parts of education.

    Presentations on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Convention on the Rights of the Child followed. The presentation on UDHR by Mr. Plantilla stressed the current context within which this international human rights document should be understood. He stressed the continuing trend toward greater freedom at various levels (self to country) and the international human rights system that evolved. He noted that human history has several trends such as the following:

• Discrimination (exclusion, distinction, restriction, preference) to Equality
• Colonization to Independence (personal bondage to freedom; foreign occupation to national independence)
• Progression towards fulfillment of human and community potentials (participation, empowerment)
• Proper mix of traditional ideas with modern international principles and procedures (internationally agreed human rights standards and processes)
• Protection (provision of remedies for violations against human dignity)
• Promotion of "All Human Rights for All."

    He also discussed the relationship between government and people in human rights terms. People (both as individuals and community) are rights-holders. They

• assert and realize their human rights
• seek protection from human rights violations
• respect/support the rights of others.

    While the government is the duty-bearer which should

• not hinder the exercise of human rights (negative role)
• support fulfilment of human rights (positive role) - special measures, positive discrimination, affirmative action, legal/policy/program support.

    The participants did a short exercise on reorganizing the manner by which the provisions of UDHR were written, as a way to understand the provisions. He also presented a possible way of presenting the provisions of the UDHR (lifecycle approach) to emphasize the point that there can be different ways of understanding human rights beyond the usual civil-political and economic-social-cultural categorizations. He presented the principles that support the full realization of human rights such as universality, indivisibility, and interdependence of human rights.
    Mr. Abdulrahim P. Vijapur of Jamia Millia Islamia discussed the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). He discussed the concept of the rights of the child, and the history of drafting the CRC to address some of the objections raised against it, and the particular rights provided for in the instrument. He cited the 4 major principles in the CRC, namely,

• Non-discrimination (Article 2)
• Best interest of the child (Article 3)
• Right to life, survival and maintenance (Article 6)
• Respect for views of child (Article 14).

    He presented the rights under CRC as five sets of rights consisting of civil and political rights; rights relating to family environment and alternative care; basic rights of health and care; education, leisure and cultural rights; and rights involving children under difficult circumstances and in situation of emergency.
    He also explained some problems relating to the implementation of the CRC due to the number of reservations registered by many countries, the delay in submission of country reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, among others.
    The experiences of India and the Philippines on integrating human rights education into the school curriculum were presented by Mr. Arjun Dev, formerly of the Indian National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and Ms. Lolita Nava of the Philippine Normal University respectively. Both presentations pointed out specific subject areas that can be used to discuss human rights. They also mentioned briefly the results of a multi-country survey on educational policies and human rights awareness of students.^[5]
    Ms. Nava pointed out the constitutional as well as legal support for human rights education in Philippine schools. A number of executive and administrative issuances have been made that support human rights education in schools. She also discussed the Basic Education Curriculum 2002 which reduced the learning areas from nine to five (English, Filipino, Mathematics, Science and MAKABAYAN). The MAKABAYAN learning area includes Social Studies, Music, Arts, Physical Education, Technical and Livelihood Education and Values Education. Most of the entry points on peace and human rights concepts are in Social Studies subject. She explained how human rights are incorporated in the different subjects in primary and secondary curriculums. She also presented a sample lesson plan on human rights. She mentioned that there are several government projects on women, children and indigenous peoples which also provide avenues for teaching human rights. Finally she presented some highlights of the Philippine results under the 4-country survey on human rights awareness of students. She mentioned the school as being the primary source of knowledge on human rights, and that generally the students say they know human rights. But this awareness of human rights does not seem to result into human rights practice. Thus there is a gap between the claim of human rights awareness and practice. She also noted that students who come from areas where human rights violations are common seem to have higher level of human rights awareness.
    Mr. Dev briefly discussed the development of the school curriculum in India from the 1970s to late 1990s. The first curriculum framework was adopted in 1975 which was not a national one and was meant for the first 10 years of education. In 1986 India had a landmark document in the form of a comprehensive policy of education which gave structure to Indian education, this was the National Education Policy (NEP). It envisaged much more clearly what should be the core ideological orientation of the school curriculum. He noted that in the 1990s some ideas began to constantly change and in 2002 a new curriculum framework and new textbooks came out. Inbetween 2002 and 2004 there was a controversy involving the curriculum, which actually started from 2000 onward. The controversy involved the issue of saffronization that actually meant colonization instead of secularization. Some of the political parties started reversing the process of saffronization in 2004. In that year, when government changed, older history textbooks which were thought to be against our national values were brought back and then a new curriculum was framed.
    He said that human rights are not taught as a separate subject in the curriculum. Various components of human rights are reflected in various subjects. The Indian school system has a very rigid curriculum and whatever is prescribed in textbooks is taught in schools. There is less creativity on the part of the teacher in this context. In most cases up to Grade X textbooks are also prescribed for each board/school system. Similar approach is even followed in case of environmental education. Up to Grade X, all subjects are compulsory and two to three languages are taught. Everybody does mathematics, science, physical education, and art education. At senior secondary level (Grades XI and XII), NCERT developed a core course that provides student with the freedom to choose subjects. It may be possible to consider human rights within the subjects and an integrated view of school education curriculum may be done up to Grade X. In subjects like history, geography, language, one of the objectives is to develop a sense of critical thinking among the students towards their own country. So in the case of human rights education, a critical view of society is being developed. All human rights issues become part of the curriculum. The only thing needed to do is to develop independent critical minds. If this is done, there is education in human rights. History is even full of instances of how Indians fought against various injustices - e.g. under British rule rights were violated, the Indian freedom movement was totally non-sectoral and free from racial hatred of the English people. The Indian struggle for freedom is important if it is taught to inculcate human rights to students. To understand the universality of human rights we need to understand the Indian freedom movement and struggle.
    History is capable of providing examples to conceptualize human rights. There is no school curriculum in India, for example, which does not include post second World War racism.
    At the primary level social studies subjects include biographies of great people both Indian and foreign like Martin Luther King, and Abraham Lincoln. A 1997 Commonwealth survey involving India, Zimbabwe, and some more countries revealed that the Indian curriculum is the only major curriculum which has included all aspects of human rights. The students' performance level in India was much more than those in other countries. He likewise presented some results of the India survey, under the recent 4-country survey on human rights awareness of secondary students. He noted that in some cases, students who come from less developed areas and schools are much more aware of human rights.
    Ms. Pranati Panda, Reader of the NCERT, made the final presentation dealing with the concept of integration of human rights education into the school curriculum. She briefly presented the definition of human rights education as formulated by the United Nations. She stressed that human rights education

• Produces changes in values and attitudes
• Produces changes in behavior
• Produces empowerment for social justice
• Develops attitudes of solidarity across issues and nations
• Develops knowledge and analytical skills
• Produces participatory education.

    She emphasized that at the core of the right to education is human rights education. Quoting Amartya Sen, she pointed out that the preparation of the children for "responsible life in a free society" can only happen when they are made responsible in an environment where they experience freedom.
    She mentioned the different integration approaches, the link between integration of human rights education into the school curriculum with its integration into teacher education curriculum, the need to relate to issues affecting students, and the use of participatory teaching/learning processes. A section of her presentation was later used as a guideline for the curriculum review exercise. On integration she presented the various approaches as follows:

    Direct context:

This involves inclusion of specific topics or subjects that focus on human rights into mathematics, science, or history subjects.

    Indirect context:

This involves the use of all school subjects as vehicles for human rights education. Some examples are (i) creating "learning units in human rights" in order to integrate the content of different subjects toward solving a particular problem and (ii) including human rights elements in every subject.

    Implicit context:

This involves the creation of a socio-cultural ethos in schools that will develop students' understanding of human rights.

    She also explained the two perspectives of integration:

    Curriculum

- making a particular kind of interrelationship between subject matters; using a wide variety of ways of combining subjects; and blurring subject matter boundaries to pursue the topics holistically (using real life problems). In this way the lessons and topics become vehicles to convey human rights in a meaningful context.

    Pedagogy

- using the constructivist perspective that children construct knowledge holistically, when knowledge is embedded in appropriate context it becomes meaningful and enjoyable. The pedagogy provides context and connections to explore, think, reflect and internalize knowledge.

    During the second half of the workshop, the participants reviewed their school curriculums and presented what could be done to improve the integration of human rights education into the school curriculum. They were provided with the following guidelines, taken from the presentation of Ms. Panda, for developing curriculum with human rights content:

• Integrate human rights more expressly and comprehensively into the school curriculum
• Emphasize the interconnected nature of human rights and the interaction between human rights, peace, development and democracy
• Convey a balance between human rights and responsibilities in keeping with the international standards and a sense of universalism
• Promote a more bottom-up approach to human rights education by analyzing actual situations at the local level and using them as entry points for human rights principles and international instruments
• Utilize active teaching methodology which sensitizes one's conscience and involvement, include more "LEARNING BY DOING", audiovisual techniques, artistic expressions, field work and participation in community projects, while promoting multilingual information and multimodal methods.

    They were also asked to make proposed human rights curriculum with the following characteristics:

• Stage-specific outline using the cognitive development of children - preschool to senior secondary
• Introduction of human rights in sequential, coherent, systematic, progressing manner
• Human rights concepts linked with present situation.

Nepal
    The Nepali participants (Mr. Indra Bahadur Shrestha^[6] and Mr. Soviet Ram Bista^[7]) presented the problem posed by the current internal armed conflict in Nepal which has been causing not only damage to school facilities but death and physical injury to students, teachers and education officials. They proposed to make all schools in Nepal as "Zones of Peace" in addition to supporting students and teachers at the community level.
    In their paper "Effect of Conflict in School Education" they state that Nepal is now facing an armed conflict situation, which has never been experienced before.^[8] Since the conflict started in the mid-1990s, hundreds of thousands people have been affected badly across the country. The conflict started in the midwestern part of Nepal, which is considerably a poor area compared to other parts of the country. Communist insurgents have specifically targeted landowners, teachers, political leaders and other government employees. Most of the displaced people have either flocked to the main cities or fled to India. People who have been displaced are gathered in district headquarters, and big cities like Kathmandu, Pokhara, Nepalgunj, Surkhet, etc. Those who are displaced from their own villages, first stayed at district headquarters and then moved to the urban areas. The conflict situation has affected the education service delivery system.
    They mentioned that the fifth of the twelve strategies adopted by the Dakar World Education Forum in 2000 explicitly focuses on the rights of children in emergencies. This strategy stresses the importance of meeting. "...the needs of education systems affected by conflict, natural calamities and instability and conduct[ing] educational programs in ways that promote mutual understanding, peace and tolerance, and that help to prevent violence and conflict". They cited the call of Dakar Framework for Action (UNESCO, 2009:9) for national Education for All (EFA) plans to include provision for education in emergency situations. Governments, particularly education ministries, have an important role to play in an area that has often been dominated by the actions of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and United Nations agencies.
    Most of the teachers in conflict-affected areas have been threatened by the insurgents. Thousands of teachers and students are being abducted. In this way the ongoing conflict in the country has created a number of problems in the urban/plain areas. Normally the classrooms in the urban areas are already crowded. There is already severe shortage of teachers in those areas. The influx of people from the mountain and hilly areas coupled with displacement due to the conflict has further worsened the already ailing teaching/learning situation across the country. This is particularly true in districts with overcrowded classrooms such as Bardiya, Banke, Kailali, Kanchanpur, Rupandehi, Morang, Jhapa, etc. Therefore, there is an urgent need to address the problems by building additional classrooms and providing the needed teachers. The insurgents attack school buildings every now and then. Unilateral truce provides comparatively more peaceful situation in the country.
    The insurgency resulted into the following:

1. Displacement of students and teachers
2. Damage to school facilities
3. Threats against and torture of teachers and students
4. Closure of schools for a number of days
5. Hindered school management/monitoring/data collection/information system, etc,
6. Hindered curriculum transaction.

    Information on the effects of the conflict on school education are broadly categorized into five areas, i.e., damage to buildings, damage to other properties, teachers affected, students affected, and other personnel affected. The particulars are given below:

	Particulars*		Total
A	Building damaged:		108
	Schools	70
	District Education Office(DEO)/Regional Education Directorate (RED)	31
	Others (Education Training Center/Resource Center)	7
B	Other properties damaged:		9
	Vehicles	9
C	Teachers affected:		842
	Killed	182
	Affected (arrested, kidnapped, wounded, warranted)	233
	Deputed outside the district	135
	Deputed within the district	292
D	Students affected:		2,391
	Killed	11
	Affected (kidnapped, wounded, transferred, displaced)	2,316
	Orphaned	64
E	Other educational personnel(DEO/RED/SMC)		15
	Killed	5
	Kidnapped	5
	Wounded	5
* Information as of 21 November 2005.

    The government has taken some steps to address the problem by collecting information from the affected districts and regions in order to assess the impact, allocating budget to assist the affected people and to develop the schools as "zones of peace",^[8] reviewing the national school curriculum to make Sanskrit an optional subject in lower secondary level, reassigning teachers to safer areas, providing affected students scholarship to continue their study, and keeping the schools open as much as possible despite the difficult situation. The soon-to-befinalized National Curriculum Framework for primary level (grades 1-12) has a provision supporting initiatives to address local needs. The government has formed a "Curriculum Reform Recommendation Committee" and the Committee has submitted its report to MOES.

Proposed Human Rights Curriculum
  A. Primary Level (Grades 1 - 5)

Areas of Focus	Contents and Strategies
1. Review of existing human rights content in the curriculum (Learning Outcomes	· Exchange of experiences on cooperation · Child rights and their practice · Awareness of fundamental rights and duties and their practice
2. Proposed human rights education contents to be included in the curriculum	· Respect for people · Respect for culture · Uphold democratic norms and values and demonstrate them in behavior · Help the needy · Resolve conflict Strategies follow Grades 1 to 5 from family to nation respectively
3. Issues to be dealt with	Positive sense: Self-esteem, confidence, nationality Negative sense: Child abuse and discrimination case studies
4. Methodologies to be adopted	Playway (games), story telling, role play, demostration, self-exploration and other child-centered methods Teachers must consider the approach of nondiscrimination, inclusion and participation
5. Subject integration	Language, Social Studies, Creative Arts, Physical Education
6. Implementation strategies	· Training and orientation program for teachers, head teachers and supervisors/resource persons in order to perform their roles in line with human rights knowledge, skill, attitude and practice (KSAP). · Raise awareness of parents, members of the School Management Committee (SMC) and Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) on human rights education.
7. Other options	· Inclusion of human rights lessons into the textbooks · Inclusion of human rights education materials in the teacher resource materials (TRM) so that all teachers are able to access it · Seek the help of human rights activists in creating the human rights environment and ask them to work as watchdog.
8. Evaluation and assessment	· Continuous Assessment System (CAS) · Observation · Regular test

    They explained that the current school curriculum includes the teaching of human rights in the form of rights provided for in the Nepali Constitution. The constitution guarantees the following human rights of every citizen:

• Right to equality
• Freedom of press and publication
• Right against arbitrary dispersal of public gatherings
• Right to information
• Right to property
• Right to culture and education
• Right against exploitation
• Right to religion
• Right to privacy
• Right to constitutional remedies
• Right against forced exile.

    They also cite curricular objectives relating to the study of human rights at different year levels:

    Primary level objectives

- students will be able to become aware

and practice child rights and duties

    Lower secondary level objectives

- students will be able to become aware about civic responsibilities and practice their rights and duties.

    Higher secondary level

- students will be able to know the constitutional provisions on human rights and duties.

    In their proposal for integrating human rights education into the school curriculum, they would like to take up issues such as the development of self-esteem, self-confidence and sense of nationalism, and also child abuse and discrimination. They would like to focus on rights that respect people, culture, democratic norms and values, help the needy, and resolve conflict. These issues and human rights can be integrated into language, social studies, creative arts, and physical education subjects for primary level. Human rights relating to conflict resolution, privacy, inclusiveness, creation of human rights community (in school) are proposed to be integrated in all subjects in the secondary level curriculum.
    Proposed human rights curriculum for primary and secondary levels are provided here on pages 94 and 95.

Proposed Human Rights Curriculum
  B. Secondary Level (Grades 6 - 10)
  The same pattern as in primary level is followed here

Areas of Focus	Contents and Strategies
1. Review of existing human rights content in the curriculum (Learning Outcomes)	· Civic responsibilities and practice of the rights and duties · Awareness of human rights organizations · Human rights and duties
2. Human rights contents to be included	· Conflict resolution · Right to privacy · Inclusiveness · Creating human rights community (school-focus)
3. Methodologies	· Case studies · Field work · Artistic expression · Participation in community projects · Discussion and so on
4. Subject integration	All subjects

Sri Lanka
    The Sri Lankan participants mentioned, as a background, that a few years ago some teachers were protesting the teaching of human rights in schools due to alleged rise of indiscipline among the students, and likely also due to fear that they were liable to be sued for their actions to discipline students. The government however continued to support human rights education in Sri Lankan schools. The participants proposed the integration of human rights education into the primary curriculum through environment-related activities as well as subjects such as geography, civic education, science, esthetic education, and physical education. Environment-related activities can be used to learn human rights principles such as nondiscrimination and equality, freedom of expression, right to culture, right to work, right to property, and equality before the law. In addition to teaching human rights within the subjects, they can also be taught through ways of teaching, and special projects (such as inclusive education, and education on other languages - Tamil for Singhalese students or Singhala for Tamil students). For the secondary level, the inclusion of human rights into the civics and governance subjects will be strengthened. Under the proposed civics and governance subjects, there is a specific topic on human rights and duties, as well as inclusion of human rights in other topics regarding government, law, the economic system and international relations.
    The Sri Lankan participants separately presented the proposed integration of human rights education into primary and secondary curriculums.
    Mr. Eriyagama Lekamalage Suranimala^[9] stressed that in integrating human rights concepts into the school curriculum, the following considerations were given weight:
    - Stage of the child's cognitive development and
    - Stage of the child's moral development.

    He then explained how to introduce human rights into the primary education curriculum, as in the following table.

Key Stage One Grade One Grade Two First Language Mathematics Religion Environment-related activities under Geography, Civic Education, Science, Esthetic Education, Physical Education subjects Human rights concept can be effectively introduced in these subjects. Co-curricular activities

Key Stage Two
Grade Three	Grade Four
First Language English Second national language
Mathematics
Religion
Environment-related activities under Geography, Civic Education, Science, Esthetic Education, Physical Education subjects	Human rights concept can be effectively introduced in these subjects
Co-curricular activities

Key Stage Three
Grade Five
First Language English Second national language
Mathematics
Religion
Environment-related activities under Geography, Civic Education, Science, Esthetic Education, Physical Education subjects	Human rights concept can be effectively introduced in these subjects
Co-curricular activities Activities in relation to students' interest

    He also explained the three-dimension model of introducing human right concepts used in this sample curriculum, consisting of

• What we teach in classrooms (Curriculum)
• The way we teach (Pedagogy)
• Special projects for reinforcement of learning

1. First Dimension
  Integration of human rights concepts into environment-related activities Grades One and Two

Themes	Human Rights Concepts
	Grade One	Grade Two
Our school	Article 2, UDHR Do not discriminate fellow students Equity	Article 2, UDHR Do not discriminate fellow students Equity
Our family	Articles 2, 3, 4 Equity	Articles 2, 3, 4 Equity
Animals in our immediate surroundings
Play activities with water
New Year Festival (Sinhala Hindu)	Article 2 Learning other's cultural values and habits Equity Article 19 Share ideas	Article 2 Learning other's cultural values and habits Equity Article 19 Share ideas
Sky
Food and drinks	Article 19 Share ideas	Article 19 Share ideas
Way of getting information	Article 19 Share ideas	Article 19 Share ideas
Changes in our environment
Like and dislike
Transportation
Play activities with light	Cooperative living with others
Workplaces in our immediate surroundings (example, for farmers and doctors)	Equity Importance of labor	Equity Importance of labor
Differences in our environment
People who need our help	Empathy Sympathy Help others	Empathy Sympathy Help others

  Integration of human rights concepts into environment-related activities Grades Three to Five

Themes	Grade3	Grade4	Grade5
Plants in our environment
Animals in our surroundings
Things we use	Article 17 Right to own property	Article 17 Right to own property	Article 17 Right to own property
Our food and drinks
We are Sri Lankan	Article5 Right against torture (issue of bullying in school)	Law is the same for everyone	Law is the same for everyone
Protection	Article5 Right against torture (issue of bullying in school)
Water
Transportation
Our garden
Wind
Earth and sky
Cities
People and information	Article 20 Right to freedom of assembly and association	Article 20	Article 20
Development

2. Second Dimension
    Mr. Suranimala explained the second dimension - Way of teaching - as

• Capacity-building of teachers, providing them with the necessary information and training
• Improving the quality of teaching and learning activities by letting students experience the human rights concepts
• Listening to others
• Sharing ideas.

3. Third Dimension
    The third dimension involves special projects to improve the situation by focusing on the following:

• Education as a right of children
• Essential learning competencies
• Remedial teaching activities for slow learners
• Inclusive education for children with disability
• Teaching second national language - Sinhala for Tamil students, Tamil for Sinhala students.

    Mr. Abeywickrama Liyanage Sunil Abeywickrama^[10] explained the government efforts on human rights education and presented the integration of human rights into the secondary curriculum through Civic Education for Grades 6 to 9 and Civics and Governance for Grades 10 to 11.
    He explained that the government of Sri Lanka is continuously accelerating the promotion of human rights education in both formal and informal education systems. The Ministry of Education and the National Institute of Education are jointly developing several programs relating to curriculum development, pre- and in-service training, and awareness-raising in support of human rights education. Human rights education has been included in the school curriculum more than two decades ago through the National Curriculum (formal education). It is now in the form of subjects on "Civic Education" and "Civics & Governance" for Grade 6 -11 for secondary schools with major focus on CRC, UDHR and other human rights documents, and relevant institutions involved in human rights work. In addition, the government established a Ministry named Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, which promotes human rights activities through comprehensive programs that enhance community development.
    The following national and international (intergovernmental and non-governmental) institutions promote human rights in Sri Lanka:

National Child Protection Authority
Center for the Study of Human Rights (CSHR), University of Colombo
Children and Women Bureau
Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka
Institute of Human Rights
Department of Probation and Child Care Services
Caritas Sri Lanka (SEDEC)
Lawyers for Human Rights and Development
Christian Children's Fund
Hope for Children
Save the Children in Sri Lanka
United States Agency for International Agency
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

  Civics and Governance
  Grades 10 - 11
    Aim
    This course is designed to enable students to understand principles of government and economic activity, along with their practice, with particular reference to Sri Lanka. Through this they should appreciate the importance of democratic and responsible structures and lifestyles that contribute to the productive development of people within a social environment
    Objectives

• Understanding of political concepts and their application in practice
• Appreciation of the goals of government and the functions of the various branches of government
• Ability to analyze critically the different political perspectives and priorities
• Knowledge of economic principles and different economic theories with the ability to analyze and assess them
• Critical evaluation of the powers required by institutions and individuals in terms of their functions and purposes.

    Methodology
    The syllabus consists of discrete areas in which students will be introduced to basic human rights principles. The historical development of human rights may be introduced whenever relevant to the issues, while students should be encouraged to analyze the application or nonapplication of such principles in the Sri Lankan context. Comparison with other countries should be facilitated through project work. The ability to distinguish between functions and structures should be developed, along with understanding of goals and the means whereby these can be pursued. The importance of democratic governance on the basis of accountability to the citizenry should be appreciated.

    Topics to be covered

    Grade 10 (90 Periods)

Democratic government
Decentralization and devolution of power
Multicultural society
Economic systems and relations
Conflict resolution in a democratic society

    Grade 11 (90 Periods)

Law and justice
Different layers of government
Human rights and duties
Environmental problems and sustainable development
International relations

    Please see pages 127 to 132 for details of Civic Education for Grades 6 to 9, and pages 133 to 137 on Civics and Governance for Grades 10 & 11.
    The following learning methods are proposed in teaching the subjects Civic Education and Civics and Governance. Further information could be obtained from the teachers' guides and in-service training sessions. Teachers are free to use these learning methods as appropriate in the learning-teaching process in the classroom:

Observation
Discovery
Gathering information through interviews
Information analysis
Field work
Children's' parliament, welfare societies, voluntary free services (Shramadana campaign, etc.) and volunteer free service camps, cadet and scout camps
Attending to the sick and management of contingencies
Various societies: social welfare, conservation of environment, conservation of resources of historical value
Projects
Problem solving
Inquiry methods
Question and answer methods
Wall newspapers
Exhibitions
Working jointly with other organizations set up in the region
Working with national and international organizations
Conduct workshop with the participation of resource persons
Facilitatory services

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