Teachers in Niger Learn to Prevent Violent Extremism and Bring a Culture of Peace to the Classroom
In the Diffa and Tillabéri regions of Niger, insecurity caused by violent extremism is undermining stability and hindering the right to access quality education for all. To address this situation, UNESCO’s Capacity Development for Education (CapED) Programme supported the contextualization of a teacher’s guide on the prevention of violent extremism for the Sahel region, designed by the International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA).
Following the validation of the guide in 2019, UNESCO conducted a pilot test of the guide in schools in the Diffa region, which was followed by a training workshop for 65 teachers from targeted primary and secondary schools in the Tillabéri region in April 2021.
For the teachers in training, the first step was to identify the values to be transmitted to prevent violent extremism.
Once these values were identified, it was necessary to find anchor points in the official curriculum, according to the subjects and grade. Through transformational pedagogy, which places students at the heart of the learning process, learners will be instilled with these values, and will be able to use and transmit them in contexts outside of school.