T

he Ambon conflict between 1999 and 2002 led various circles to support a peace education program which has already been tested in some schools through the Maluku Brotherhood Education Curriculum.

In 2001 a group of peace education activists in Maluku got sponsorship from the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) and set up a team to design a local curriculum aimed at changing the way students think about conflict and peace in former conflict areas.

Head of Unicef's Ambon office Widodo Suhartoyo said that the spirit behind the creation of the curriculum originated from the religious-related conflicts, which previously erupted in Ambon. The curriculum was called the Maluku Brotherhood Education Curriculum to distance it from the image of conflict.

"The spirit of the curriculum is how to teach students the values of local cultural wisdom in Maluku and the community brotherhood system, which is popularly called pela and gandong (family members and kinship relations). This actually is not based on religious considerations but on the social relations in the Maluku community," Suhartoyo said.

"The younger generation, especially students, has to be introduced to the values of this wisdom and moral code," he said, explaining that these traditional values had long existed, but the problem was how to convey them to the younger generation.

"One of the techniques is through schools, so that's why a special curriculum is needed," he said.

Suhartoyo said a test-run on the curriculum had been held at 16 junior high schools in Ambon. The curriculum is now used by the Sport and Education Office as part of school activities throughout Ambon.

The implementation of the program secured funding support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to be implemented in six reconciliation schools in Ambon - four elementary schools, one junior high school and one senior high school.

The six schools are called reconciliation schools because since 2002 they continued operation on the borderline between the two conflicting religious communities in Maluku. Their students and teachers are from both communities even though at the beginning their composition was not balanced.

"This curriculum has become a local content component in the schools because the ordinary curriculum is regulated by the Ministry of Education. However, the new curriculum can be further evolved to combine with other lessons like morals and English language," he said. He hoped this local wisdom would be able to influence other subjects at school as well.

Even though there has been a test-run on the curriculum, according to Suhartoyo, its implementation needs improvement because not all schools are willing to adopt it. "The (education) office has to pay attention to this. We hope the curriculum will be applied not only in Ambon but in other regencies because these conflicts reached most regions throughout Maluku," he said.

Meanwhile, Ambon Mayor Marcus Jopie Papilaja said the existing education system, which is supposed to reflect diversity, tends to do otherwise. For example, the process of teaching science and technology in schools is not based on the existing social and cultural context, so it tends to create a generation which disregards local social realities.

"This will threaten social integration in the community now and in the future," he said.

Therefore, he said local content is badly needed because students then pay attention to how to respect the existing values of diversity. "This curriculum is expected to become an effective instrument in the cultural transformation process, which is pro-pluralism and pro-humanity," he said.

In order to carry out peace education the Ambon municipal administration, with support from UNDP under the Peace Through Development program, has published textbooks containing the five aspects of the curriculum based on local cultural wisdom.