India: RiseUp4Peace Workshop equips Mumbai educators with knowledge and tools to promote peace, resilience and integrity in students

Mumbai, India/05 October 2024: Education plays a critical role in shaping resilient and responsible young citizens. Instilling values of peace, integrity, and inclusion—aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 16—equips students to navigate challenges like peer pressure, mental health struggles, and cybercrime. This foundational understanding is essential for fostering a more just and peaceful society.

50 Principals and educators from 12 schools in Mumbai explored practical educational interventions in this direction at a RiseUp4Peace capacity-boosting workshop held in collaboration with the Nahar International School. With real-life examples, participants highlighted key vulnerabilities that students face today, particularly linked to online safety, substance use and negative influences.

In discussions with Dr. Satya Bhushan from the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and Mr. Samarth Pathak, UNODC’s Communications Officer for South Asia, educators emphasized connecting their learning with both the Sustainable Development Goals and India’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 vision. “Early interventions are critical in helping students build resilience,” an educator remarked. “This training has shown us how to weave these values into our everyday curriculum.”

Active involvement of students enriched the discussions. They candidly shared personal experiences related to peer pressure, mental health challenges, and instances of gender-based violence. “Hearing from the students transformed our perspective,” said a students’ counsellor. “It’s one thing to talk about these issues in theory, but hearing them discuss their experiences made it all the more urgent and real for us.”

Ms. Vandana Arora, Principal of the Nahar International School said, “We must address students’ mental health and online safety concerns. As a partner of UNODC’s RiseUp4Peace, we are committed to sensitise and empower students on these themes in classrooms and find ways to confront these challenges head-on.” Her sentiment was echoed by many educators who recognized the importance of facilitating honest conversations about the issues affecting young minds today.

Armed with these insights, educators are determined to turn their learning into action. Working in mixed groups, educators called for continued workshops and school-wide activities on SDG16 themes. “Localising and contextualizing educational tools and promoting sharing of good practices is key to strengthen classroom engagement.”

RiseUp4Peace is an effort in this direction, as a coalition of educator partners committed to take these transformative insights into classrooms through sustained capacity building of educators, interactive students’ engagement and fostering cross-learning.

Join the RiseUp4Peace initiative:  t.ly/lh9T7

This activity contributes to SDG 4, SDG5, SDG 16 and SDG 17: https://sdg-tracker.org/