Schools must teach global citizenship - not just a history of wars, peace forum hears

Schools should teach the concept of global citizenship to help children build a more peaceful, tolerant, and inclusive world when they grow up, a peace conference held at Expo 2020 Dubai has heard.

The eighth Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Communities was told how some schools in different parts of the world have developed their curriculum to promote co-existence and the acceptance of diversity within their small communities.

Canon Anthony Ball, an assistant bishop in the Egyptian city of Alexandria and in the UK, said Muslim and English schools in Egypt have collaborated on teaching children inclusive citizenship by introducing an initiative called Plant a Tree of Hope.

“Religious leaders from both sides go to a school and talk about inclusive citizenship and how children can work together from a young age,” he said.

We need to rewrite history because right now it's only based on conflict. Children need to learn the history of arts, culture, and science; not just the history of wars

Muhammad Othman Elkhosht,
Cairo University

“Citizenship is not just about co-operating for the common good in building the state, it's about including everyone in everything. For example, deaf pupils are included through sign language — that is inclusive citizenship.

“Citizens are taught about their responsibilities and how to build the future.”

He also spoke about how local and global citizenship is taught in British schools in the UK.

“It teaches the values of citizenship in the local context,” he said.

Such an approach is important because it helps children learn how to participate positively in society, the bishop said.

Muhammad Othman Elkhosht, president of Cairo University, said school curriculums needed to adapt to changing times and teach multicultural humanitarian citizenship.

“We need a radical transformation. We need to reconsider our education system,” the speaker said.

“We need to introduce subjects such as dialogue, inclusive citizenship, and also tweak chemistry and physics.

“We need to rewrite history because right now it's only based on conflict. Children need to learn the history of arts, culture, and science; not just the history of wars.

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“Citizenship is a practice rather than a theory. It is the responsibility of the states to ensure these are taught in schools.

“Schools are a community-driven project and a good state should ensure equal access to education and not just for elite groups. It should teach tolerance in practicing religion and accepting others without clashes.”

Religious leaders from across the world are participating in the forum, titled Inclusive Citizenship: From Mutual Coexistence to Shared Conscience.

The event will run until Tuesday.

Cinco in numbers

Dh3.7 million

The estimated cost of Victoria Swarovski’s gem-encrusted Michael Cinco wedding gown

46

The number, in kilograms, that Swarovski’s wedding gown weighed.

1,000

The hours it took to create Cinco’s vermillion petal gown, as seen in his atelier [note, is the one he’s playing with in the corner of a room]

50

How many looks Cinco has created in a new collection to celebrate Ballet Philippines’ 50th birthday

3,000

The hours needed to create the butterfly gown worn by Aishwarya Rai to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.

1.1 million

The number of followers that Michael Cinco’s Instagram account has garnered.

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Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.