Journal of Business and Social Review in Emerging Economies (Apr 2021)

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

  • Shabnam Shahab,
  • Samee Ullah

DOI
https://doi.org/10.26710/jbsee.v7i2.1616
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 2

Abstract

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Education is a corner stone for the social, economic, cultural and political development of any society. This research articulates the impact of Higher Education in the process of peacebuilding and violence free coexistence of post 9/11 context in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) prior and after Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) amalgamation. 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. The study has analyzed the role of higher education for community development, peace building in post conflicted areas such as Bosnia, Rwanda, Sudan, and Spain with the adoption of global approaches of stabilization, state-building, and civic training. But does this happen in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa? It has been established through empirical analyses that the framework of higher education has lain dormant and beyond the limits of easy access for the man in the street. The higher education role has been ignored in peace building and reconstruction era. This research in its findings proposes that the 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 peacebuilding community.

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