Let’s celebrate education’s power to spread tolerance [View all]

[yuiyoshida]

On the eve of International Day for Tolerance, celebrated on November 16, we highlight evidence for education’s unique ability to boost tolerance and reduce discrimination.

One of the fundamental roles that education plays is to increase tolerance. Tolerance, in turn, underpins democracy and strengthens the bonds that hold peaceful communities and societies together.

Education’s contribution is especially vital in regions and countries where lack of tolerance is associated with violence and conflict. And the more equal the education, the greater its power to increase tolerance. As we show on our Education Transforms website, in sub-Saharan Africa the risk of conflict in the areas with the highest education inequality is almost double that of the areas that have the lowest education inequality.

The human toll of intolerance can be catastrophic. UNESCO pushed for the establishment of International Day for Tolerance in 1995, a year after more than half a million people were killed in the genocide in Rwanda. On November 16, 1995, the 50th anniversary of the signature of UNESCO’s constitution, UNESCO’s 185 member states adopted a Declaration of Principles on Tolerance, whose Article 4 begins: “Education is the most effective means of preventing intolerance.”

more..http://efareport.wordpress.com/2013/11/15/lets-celebrate-educations-power-to-spread-tolerance/