Guns & Laptops: Future of Education in Conflict Zones?

You may wonder about the post_title of this reflection; what does it imply? I have recently been to Afghanistan and Laos, two present/past conflict zones in the Asian region. I am comparing these with the context of eastern India—the tribal ‘warâ zones of Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and the surrounding districts. I notice one common pattern in these conflict zones—there is no systematic investment in education, specially adult, life-long and post-secondary education.

Afghanistan has no programme for education of community development, social development or human development professionals; there are several educational ‘shopsâ for accountancy, business, IT, engineering, etc; several bilateral donors (including India) support some of these technical educational programmes. But, there is no focus on preparing professionals who can understand and work on issues of conflict, gender, social discrimination, community organization, social work, environment and governance. A few international experts and a handful of internationally educated Afghans are in high demand in the conflict zones of Afghanistan. Since the demand (from international donors) far exceeds supply, these handful of trained professionals are constantly changing jobs and getting paid at locally unsustainable levels. Billions of dollars are being spent on guns and security (the two seem to be synonymous?) every year, but not even millions on lifelong learning and post-secondary education for social development.

Laos has been hiding behind the shadows of Vietnam and Combodia all these years. Now that the country is embarking on a path to socio-economic development, it is facing acute shortage of trained professionals, especially in the fields of education, human and social development. Nearly 80 million bombs were dropped on Laos and its citizens during the Vietnam War (1964-75), highest per capita in the world; nearly a third of these bombs remain unexploded; millions were slaughtered during the conflicts in the 1980s/90s. Today, there is no educational preparation of professionals to work on issues of reconciliation, discrimination, violence and social capital in Laos. Without such professional capacity, ground -level much- needed interventions and projects on reconciliation, building social capital and strengthening local institutions will not be launched. Such educational preparation may take more than a generation, but the beginning has to be made now?

The tribal regions of India have similarly been deprived of education—from basic primary education to post-secondary professional development. Decades of exclusion and exploitation have turned thousands of tribal youths into gun-carrying ‘warriorsâ today. India is recognized as a world leader in IT; its IT companies and professionals have been ‘making wavesâ around the world. But, tribal youth have no access to internet connectivity, laptops or other new modes of knowledge production and access. In the colonial period, missionaries ran educational institutions which benefitted a few thousand tribals; since independence, the gap between educational levels of tribals in these regions and the rest of society has only widened. New investments in security apparatus are being made by the government at a formidable scale; there is no comparable investment on education—basic, adult, vocational or post-secondary. As a consequence, professional development of educators, facilitators, researchers, teachers, public officials etc is lagging way behind from within the tribal communities.

Therefore, guns are being preferred over laptops; military security over human security; short-term ‘externally designedâ development as opposed to slow, long-term evolution of local human and institutional capacities. The conflict zones of Afghanistan, Laos and eastern India can not be transformed into ‘peace gardensâ without a long-term investment in preparing indigenous professionals capable of addressing the challenges of human and social development in these societies.

Unfortunately, current ‘dogmasâ of short-term log-frames and ‘tangible, measurableâ impacts do not encourage international or national investments in long-term professional education within these societies. Whatever investment is made, it is focused on business, accountancy and IT/engineering kinds of professions. There is no recognition of, or investment in, the profession of social development in such conflict zones. Ironically, educational preparation of such social development professionals would be more critically needed in these contexts, if progress is to become ‘peaceful, equitable and justâ.

Rajesh Tandon
March 29,2011