Reclaiming Reconciliation through

Community Education for the Muslims and Tamilsof post-war Jaffna, Sri

Lanka

Ross Duncan (University of Amsterdam)Mieke Lopes Cardozo (University of Amsterdam)

16th September 2015

“It is important not to forget [the war].....and make the same mistakes as our parents’ generation. To prevent this from happening again, it begins with the schools…the children must not be poisoned. Yet, we are not prepared to stop this [war] from happening again.”

15 year-old Muslim secondary school student

(Post-) Conflict Context of Sri Lanka

• Multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-lingual South Asian country

• The 26 year civil war (1983-2009) – Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) 'Tamil Tigers' vs. Sri Lankan Army (SLA)

• Current militarisation in Tamil-dominated North through authoritarian and Sinhalese ethnicised state

• The Northern Muslims – “the forgotten minority” displacement of 15,000 Muslims from Jaffna in 1990 by LTTE

• What role can education play in such post-war reconciliation

and peacebuilding?

• Introduction of official peace education in 1991 with a increasing focus on Sinhala and Tamil languages, and emphasis upon teaching the values of democracy and citizenship

Methodological & Theoretical Foundations

• Ethnographic study of two ethno-religious groups: Northern Sri Lankan Tamils (Hindu & Catholics) and Sri Lankan Moors (Muslims) with research conducted in 3 urban secondary state schools within the city of Jaffna: Islamic school, Tamil-Catholic school, Tamil-Hindu school

• Methodology incorporating Dale’s (1999; 2000; 2005) theory of the 'Politics of Education', and multi-level framework advocated by Novelli and Smith (2011) acknowledging the need to examine not only educational discourse

• Analytical framework inspired by Fraser’s (1995; 2005) dimensions of social justice: Recognition, Representation and Redistribution

• Novelli, Lopes Cardozo and Smith (2015) ‘4R’ framework to include Reconciliation to facilitate sustainable peacebuilding in conflict or post-conflict societies

1st Research Theme: Reproduction of structural social, political and economic injustices through educationStructural inequalities of Sri Lankan society are perceived to be perpetuating conflict between ethno-religious groups which is reflected within secondary school education

The ‘3Rs’ of Recognition, Representation and Redistribution

• Recognition - Historical grievances regarding Muslims displacement perpetuating educational exclusion and segregation

• Representation - identity-based conflict regarding political representation in secondary schools

• Redistribution - educational inequality and uneven distribution of resources between schools

2nd Research Theme: The ‘4thR’ of multi-scalar Reconciliation

Through multi-scalar analysis peace education is perceived by respondents not to be addressing the needs of communities (no implementation, training, funding, resources)

• Supra-community - Sinhalese history bias, second national language, no discussion of 1983-2009 war

• Inter-community - peace education does not address unresolved Tamil (Hindu and Catholic)-Muslim religious identity-driven conflict

• Intra-community - physiological needs of war-affected students neglected, Muslim students negatively impacted by displacement

3rd Research Theme: Teacher, student and community agency for ethno-religious reconciliation

• Agency of teachers – discussion of human rights, critical of GoSL and LTTE, free speech in the classroom, alternative curriculum

• Agency of students - question selective narratives of the past and prevent the neglect and marginalisation of minority Muslim and Tamil culture and history

• Agency of external actors –individuals and CBOs from both Muslim and Tamil communities - inter-religious reconciliation through cross-community engagement, collaboration and participation days.

In light of perceived failings of official peace education, alternative forms of social justice-based, bottom-up and ‘unofficial’ peace education has emerged through community and individual agency, predominantly for Tamil-Muslim reconciliation, although impeded by militarisation

Conclusions and Recommendations

• Official education is perceived to be the embodiment of the negative face of education through enforced segregation, ethnic bias of the curriculum, and repression of critical thinking and debate

• Community-led and non-formal educational initiatives are viewed as positive face of education through the desegregation of ethno-religious groups, and the teaching of democratic principles and one’s own culture

• Peace education is too narrowly focused on the ethnic problem at the national-level; research on the role of Muslims within post-war reconciliation and rebuilding; and the reasons for increasing conflict between the four main religious groups using 4R framework

• Implementation - greater GoSL support to implement peace education and to expand the policy country-wide to prevent a sense of injustice and perception that peace education lacks political will

• De-segregation - Increase inter-ethnic and inter-religious events through both unofficial and official channels

• Curriculum - greater local involvement in peace education policy through a consultation process (teachers and students) allowing for participation and empowerment. Creation of a comparative religion subject.

• Peace education cannot succeed unilaterally - without political consensus for structural reform to alter fundamental structural inequalities; specifically reduce militarisation and allow for democratic freedoms