The Role of Higher Education as a Catalyst of Peacebuilding in Conflict Affected Regions: The Case Study of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after FATA Amalgamation

Abstract

Purpose: The study critically reviews the educational structure, policies, emphasis, application of educational goals, achievements from rural to Higher education and protecting measures enabling the youth to get easy access to education. Since the creation of Pakistan emphasis laid down on the free and compulsory education for all but failed to address the nascent challenges surfaced in the form of violent extremism, sectarianism, intolerance, and lingual discrepancies. Although the literacy rate has been increased with the passage of time but the quality of education and practical application remains under darkness.
 Methodology: To evaluate the educational targets and achievements of the elementary and secondary education in former FATA. Historical method of research was adopted and Education policies from the dawn of freedom 1947 to 2010 were studied. Moreover, The provincial initiative of Educational sector plan (ESP) and its practical outcomes were critically analyzed.
 Findings: This research in its findings proposed that structure and curriculum of higher education be revisited and expanded promptly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) particularly within the newly merged areas for the restoration of social justice, cultural diversity, educational growth, state-building and peace building community.
 Implications: The research addresses that after the amalgamation of Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa how these conflicts affected areas can be reconstructed or rebuild through higher education. The research has focused on the universal mechanism of peacebuilding education in post conflict areas keeping in view the three approaches namely, Stability, Restructuring and peacebuilding through higher education.