Cambridge conference on Colombia says education holds key to sustainable peace

The roots of the current conflict go back at least to 1964, since when Colombian government forces, left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary groups and organised crime syndicates have been disputing the control of Colombian territory.

It is estimated that over 220,000 people have died in the conflict, and that over five million civilians have been displaced. Peace negotiations, sponsored by the Norwegian government, are currently taking place in Havana, Cuba, between the Colombian government and representatives of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The seminar and workshop “Education, Conflict and Peace in Colombia”, held on 29-30 June, aimed to answer the question of how the education sector can contribute to a sustainable peace in post-agreement Colombia. It gathered diplomats, activists, politicians and academics to shine a light on education as a critical but too often overlooked aspect of the peace process.

Opening the seminar, Colombia’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, H.E. Néstor Osorio, said: “Colombian society has been devastated by the conflict. The recruitment of young people into guerrillas and paramilitary groups has been one of the most serious causes of social damage. In conflict zones, education has been disrupted. The greatest disruption has been in primary schools.”

He added that the most serious challenge facing the current peace negotiations is the question of how to find balance between the expectation of accountability for crimes perpetrated by all sides during the conflict, and Colombian society’s desire to move towards pardon and reconciliation.

Ambassador Osorio emphasised the progress made over 38 previous rounds of negotiations, which have led to some agreement on key subjects including agrarian development policy, the political participation of rebel forces and a solution to the problem of illicit drug traffic. The latest round of talks is expected to lead to compromises on the questions of reparation for victims and transitional justice.

He also acknowledged the difficulties faced by the process, including the recent unilateral cancellation of the ceasefire by FARC rebels. “If this were a marathon,” he said, “we would be in the last few kilometres. This is the most difficult part. But we have to persevere.”

Dr Andrei Gómez-Suárez, a lecturer at Colombia’s University of Los Andes, and a research associate at Oxford University, offered an overview of the conflict’s evolution. The founder of Rodeemos el Diáogo, a Colombian NGO dedicated to raising awareness of the Colombian peace process, Dr Gómez-Suárez emphasised the importance of civil society as a “third participant” in the negotiations.

“To support the peace process we must generate a culture of dialogue, so that all sectors of Colombian society can live side by side.” Expressing his aspirations for the event, he added: “I hope today and tomorrow we contribute, even in s small way, to the peace talks and to the process of process of peace-building in Colombia.”

Colombian Senator Claudia López disagreed with Dr Gómez-Suárez’s relatively optimistic view of the peace process. “There is a crisis in the peace process. There is a disconnection between the peace talks in Havana and perceptions of the peace process within Colombia. We need to close this gap if we are going to have peace. I’m hopeful that we will finish this war, the only civil war in the Western hemisphere that has lasted for almost sixty years.”

Regarding education, she said: “Ending a war and building peace are not the same. Education won’t stop a war, but it is crucial in building peace.

Early childhood care and education should be the touchstone of any education policy, she said. Colombia has 5.1 million under-5s, of which 2.5 million are from the poorest or most vulnerable families. Only 1.8 million of them receive the government’s basic care package, depriving 700 thousand children of the most elementary opportunities.

“Investing in early childhood care is by far the most important thing we need to do to close the gap in education, and to build a sustainable peace in Colombia. It is also the most cost-efficient social investment. It would cost an extra 1.8% of Colombia’s current GDP to close that early gap. It is expensive, but the return on this investment is enormous.”

Colombia, she said, is one of the most unequal countries when it comes to primary education. “Whereas other countries are closing the gap, in Colombia the gap is opening, there is an educational apartheid.” She compared the average of 10 hours of schooling per day that children receive in private schools with the less than five hours that pupils have in state schools.

She also advocated the need to improve information systems regarding school-aged children. “In Colombia we know exactly where every hectare of coca crop is planted, but we can’t track down where the most deprived children might be, or what their needs are. We have a lot more information about a plant than about our own children.”

Describing the effect that the prolonged conflict has had on Colombia’s education, Dr Julián de Zubiría, head teacher of the “Alberto Merani” school in Bogotá, and a consultant to the United Nations Development Programme and the Colombian Ministry of Education, said:

“The war has gone on for almost sixty years, meaning that everyone who is alive in the country will have had some experience of it. It is Latin America’s longest running civil conflict.” As a consequence, he noted, people have become almost inured to violence.

Almost half of all the assassinations of trade union leaders in the world happen in Colombia, a situation which often elicits the response ‘There must have been a reason for that.’ No less disturbing, he said, is the mainstream media’s coverage of assassinations committed by the Colombian armed forces. Referring to these killings euphemistically as “false positives”, Dr de Zubiría argued, is part of the process of normalising the violence.

Of the 5.3 million Colombians displaced by the war, he said, 2.2 million are children. It is estimated that at least half of the new members recruited by armed rebels have been children –52% of the fighters who have chosen chose to demobilise were children when recruited by FARC or by paramilitaries.

The Colombian education system, he argued, increases inequality rather than diminishing it. By year 9, the difference in attainment between a child attending state school and one going to a private school can be equivalent to three years of schooling. By year 11, the attainment gap is even wider. He cited the latest figures by the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment, according to which over half of Colombia’s 15-year-olds have the readings skills of 7-year-olds.

Reacting to these statistics, Ambassador Osorio said: “These have been sobering presentations. I have spent most of my diplomatic career talking to people about what is good in Colombia. Listening to today’s speakers, I now feel that Colombia has not only had sixty years of civil war, but sixty years of misappropriation of resources, and the completely wrong approach to educating its people.”

He concluded: “It is the job of policymakers to listen. I take these messages on board with tremendous humility. I also agree with the need for Colombian policymakers to communicate better with Colombians, and share what we are doing, and how we are doing it.”

Presentations later in the day offered insights into the role of education in peace-building and reconciliation processes in Nepal, Peru, Northern Uganda and Argentina. On June 30, a workshop led by Sara Clarke-Habibi, of the Cambridge Peace and Education Research Group, involved participants in mapping the strengths and weaknesses of the Colombian education sector in relation to peace-building. A briefing document with policy recommendations created by the workshop’s participants will be circulated to key stakeholders involved in Colombia’s peace process.

The seminar was co-organised by the Cambridge Peace and Education Research Group, the London School of Economics’ Colombian Society, Colombia’s Rodeemos el Diálogo, and the Educate for Dialogue society at the Institute of Education, University College London. The event was sponsored by the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Education, the Institute of Education, the Colombian Embassy, Cambridge’s Research for Equitable Access and Learning Centre, the Centre of Latin American Studies, Fitzwilliam College, St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, the LSE’s Colombian Society, and the Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre.