PYP Beyond the School Gates: West African Network for Peace-building, Accra (WANEP)

This morning, our Year 6 students at the ARIS Primary School, left for a field-trip to the West African Network for Peace-building, Accra (WANEP).

Under the PYP Transdisciplinary theme of “Sharing the Planet”, the current Unit of Inquiry for Year 6 is - Peace and Conflict Resolution. Their current lines of Inquiry being Conflict Resolution and Organizations that work for World Peace, the field trip to WANEP is fitting.

In class, they have been learning about various Intergovernmental, Non-Governmental and International Organizations that work towards World Peace and about the ways that Conflicts are resolved on a Global Platform. The PYP takes it a step further for more immersive and practical knowledge on this.

WANEP being a prominent organization in West Africa that works for Peace and Conflict, as its name suggests, the students are excited to learn about the ins and outs of Peace and Conflict Resolution. How do these organizations go about resolving Conflicts, what kinds of conflicts do they resolve, what causes conflicts, what countries do they cater for, what are the channels, what organizations do they partner with and more questions! This really gives them a chance to see what they are covering in their unit on a wider scale, and understand its global context and significance.

Think Big! After all, point is to be Global Citizens of the future! Through this unit, the targeted attitudes are empathy, tolerance and cooperation. Through the course of the unit as a whole, and this trip, children are open-minded, thinkers, inquirers and even risk-takers with their hard-hitting questions. It also gives them substantial research and communication skills.

As in the words of WANEP, themselves, it is indeed possible to teach children about peace, inclusivity, mediation, conflict resolution and peace education, to incur the values of International Mindedness and prepare Global Citizens.