Role of Primary Education in Promoting Peace in Terrorism Affected Areas: Primary School Teachers’ Perspectives

: Terrorism is the use of violence or threat of violence usually against civilians for political, religious or ideological purposes. It is a universal problem. This problem exists mostly in some part of the world. Primary education plays the crucial role in development and building peaceful and prosperous society. This study explores the perspectives of primary school teachers regarding the role of primary education in promotion of peace in terrorism affected area in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa. A quantitative survey study was used to conduct this study. It is Due to cultural barriers males are strictly forbidden to female schools. Therefore, only males’ teachers are selected randomly. Data was collected by using a self developed survey questionnaire from 150 teachers selected from male primary school in district Malakand where schools have been facing the problem of terrorist attacks.. The data was analyzed on the basis of simple percentages and frequency statistically.. Findings of the study are: majority of the teachers were found agree to the teaching of religious/spiritual values at primary school label for the promotion peace in society. Teachers were agreed to teach the religious/spiritual values to primary school children to promote peace in society. Secondly, religion is a symbol of peace and backbone of the society as it teaches peaceful way of living to its followers, thirdly teachers were found eagerly to teach the social and universal values to students for the purpose of bringing peace in the society in order to avoid conflicts., it is recommended on the basis of finding of this study that training opportunities most be provided to primary school teachers specially in terror affected areas for the purpose of promoting peace and development.


Introduction
The contemporary world is facing the surge of terrorism.Terrorism is defined as the inhuman activities which destroys the peaceful environment of a society.Kidnapping for ransom, killing of innocent people, insult of dignified people including political and religious leaders, destruction and damaging public and private property, blasting of bombs in places of worship (Mosques, churches and temples), bomb blasting in educational institutes, create fear in society are all the terrorist activities.The most terrible terrorist' activity is the suicide attack.Its prevention is very difficult but impossible.In short, terrorism can be defined as the act which spreads fear and terror in any society, country, city, village, town, street, neighborhood, family and individual.If all kinds of backgrounds and conditions of the terrorism affected society are completely ignored, then the literal interpretation of the word terrorism can be as follows: "Without distinguishing between the guilty and the innocent, involving every possible target (including ordinary citizens), to spread widespread terror and anxiety (both physical and psychological)."Terrorism has an adverse impact on society.Everyone in terrorism affected areas lead a very terrible life.Elders of the society, teachers, lawyers, government officers and political leaders are all living in terrible situation.In this regard Qadeem states that "the greatest impact of such a societal attitude is the transformation of a tolerant, accommodative and pluralistic society into an intolerant and exclusionist one" [28].In any terrorism affected society intolerance is the visible effect of terrorism.Terrorism is phenomenon that destroys the values of a society.Due to elimination of values from society a united community does not remain a united community.The terrorist' activities create the intolerance situation, in which nobody accepts Primary School Teachers' Perspectives other.Respect of elders, love with children and trust on each other is no longer remains the part of the terrorism affected society.The countries who are experienced terrorism have a society devoid of values.To maintain peace is not an easy task, it takes a lot of time.
The primary Education is one of the many sources to promote peace in a terrorism affected area.Primary Education is the vehicle for peace, and teachers are the drivers that can drive this vehicle in right direction.primary school' teacher can foster peace by discouraging discrimination, removing hatred, prejudices, preventing violence, and changing attitudes through encouraging multilingual communal cooperation and social integrity.Schools are helpful in developing physical and intellectual capacities of children to learn socializing with other children.Attacks on children of schools have deprived of their fundamental right of education.Sustaining peace in the terrorism affected area is great challenge for primary school teachers.Primary school teachers are special people, who don't teach books only, but they impart a great deal of knowledge, skills and values of culture and religion to their children.These children are future builders of society and nation.Often teachers are taken as responsible for bringing change, and are called as means of peace keeping.In conflict affected societies, it is teachers who play a key role in building the nation, identity creation and reconciliation and peace [12,33].
In terrorism affected areas the most affected people are teachers, particularly primary school teachers.Each society has its own values and norms that give strength to its social system.For peaceful society the restoring of social values is very important.The role of primary school teachers in promoting peace inside and outside the classroom, creating social harmony and promoting nation building and national identity is not hidden from anyone.The primary school teachers equip the children with the basic social, religious values.Social justice, fundamental human rights and democratic values are the core values for peaceful society.The primary functions of primary school teachers are to shape the attitudes of children by providing them the relevant knowledge and skills to face the problems of life successfully.Primary school teachers prepare the young generation for future challenges through promoting their problem-solving skills.This study was conducted to explore the perspectives of primary school' teachers in promoting peace in terrorism affected society through teaching various values and skills.

Concept of Terrorism
After 9/11, all the social researchers had made their attention focused on this word.But there is no universally accepted definition of this word.Every scholar has defined this word in different ways and defines this term according to their context and perception.Although a lot of review literature is present on this term, there is still a contradiction between the researchers to define this term.According to Salman "terrorism has no universally accepted definition because it depends upon the situation and terrorist activities that occur in a specific area" [31].But all agree on this one point that terrorists have some special purposes for they try to achieve it.Terrorism is a strategy in which the terrorists make the whole environment terrible, and frightening in every possible way.They try to spread fear among the public.For this purpose, they kidnap people, kill people, destroy or damage public and private property, assault people, bomb blasting, hijack, etc.In a variety of ways, they warn the public about their aim to achieve the target/goal.Mostly terrorism is referred to as the "unpredictable and premeditated use of violence or the threat of violence to achieve identifiable goals" [16]."Terrorism is not a philosophy or a movement, it is a method" [40].Terrorists use various deceptive strategies to attain their intentions; such strategies are also used in the third kind of war [30].Rahman explains as "The word terror has been derived from the Latin word "Terrere" which means "To frighten" [39].Terrorism is destruction, the killing of innocent people, suicide attacks, and harassment but without any cause.Terrorism intrudes on the peoples, damages the setup, brings political instability, breaks the social fabric of the society, and causes a weakening of the economy.Terrorism destroys society and makes people helpless; also weakens the cultural and social system of the community.In this regard, Naz states that" Terrorist activities produce such situations which gradually paralyze the whole socio-economic life of the state and disturb the socio-life of human beings.Unlike the war, terrorism is a kind of massive assault that is hidden and the agenda is hard to decipher [26].
Stewart has explained that terrorism as a lethal act causing fear among the people.Its major cause is hatred towards certain people or society [36].The act of terrorists aiming at the unarmed to attain their objectives through fatal actions is called terrorism.Sometimes in many countries, such acts are similar to the acts done during the freedom struggle but terrorism is vastly different than the freedom movements.Media experts have portrayed many differences between the act of terrorism and freedom fights.Terrorism is an illegal act of aggression against any innocent individual or people at large.The main object of the person that commits an act of terror is to frighten other and tries to get the desired result from that fear.Various organizations and states are also involved in this brutal act [34].Briefly, terrorism can be defined as the action by which fear and terror spreads in any society, country, city, village, town, street, neighborhood, family member, or any individual is called terrorism.

Peace
The term peace is easy to use in everyday language but difficult to define.Everyone wants peace but nobody knows what peace is.Peace is depending on the type of violence, conflicts, and terrorism.Peace is the name of the state of society where all affairs are going on normally without any violent differences.Peace is defined as the absence of violence in any society, nation, or country where the people have a life free of any kind of fear.That is why Escobari describes it as an "umbrella concept".To him, it is a certain state of human desires or state of mind, and its actualization results the terror [13].
According to Anna et al "peace is related to all kinds of praiseworthy goals and rooted in visions of a decent society, but precisely it can be said that peace, or its essential elements, is seldom clear [1]".In this regard, Christopher explains that peace is considered various things by different people.Ranging from No war to a situation of established group collaboration to a feeling of calmness, peace accomplishes a lot of semantic work [27].
Saleh states that peace is a wide-ranging and vast concept; peace means life without conflict and war.Among people forms of peace are different such as inner state of mind, and body.Overall, peace is dependent on religion-cultural, geographical, climatic, political, economic, and international systems [32].
Every society has specific values and norms which bring into practice and make a peaceful society.Peace is the highest value of each society.Without peace the development of any nation is impossible.Peace is a state of society where all matters run normally without any violent differences.In a peaceful society, all members of society enjoy social, economic, equality, and political rights and security.Oshadhi explains the term peace in his study as Peace is a small word with a deeper meaning attached to it different interpretations, different perspectives, and different understandings yet the meaning is one but for one's own self.Setting a benchmark about what peace means to a person is their own way of looking at it.But Peace is something that is vastly misinterpreted today.Everyone has their own perceptions about it out of which only a small section actually comes near to addressing 'peace [18].

Negative Versus Positive Peace
Claske explains in her study the notion of positive and negative peace as positive peace is clustered with constructive content such as the reinstatement of associations, the development of societal structures that fulfill the demands of the population, and the productive resolution of clash whereas negative peace is the nonappearance of violence, for example, removing the terrorist actions or objectionable activities [7].Further Oshadhi explains his views regarding negative and positive peace as positive peace includes the removal of the basic foundations of war, injustice, and violence and the mindful effort to shape a society that mirrors the obligations.Negative peace is called peace short of uprightness.
Peace is not only the nonappearance of negative powers e.g.war, tension, and confusion, but it is the presence of some positive forces e.g.justice, goodwill, and the power of the kingdom of God [23].

Views of Various Religions of the World Regarding Peace
Peace is a common concept among all the religions of the world.Religious Values reflect the beliefs and practices of the religion in society.Every religion in the world directly opposes repression and promotes reconciliation.In this regard, Groff and Smoker [17] describe the views of the five major religions of the world regarding peace as i In Islam "A Muslim surrenders to the will of Allah and is an establisher of peace (while Islam means the establishment of peace, Muslim means one who establishes peace through his actions and conduct)" [42].ii According to Hinduism "The Lord lives in the heart of every creature.He turns them round and round upon the wheel of Maya.Take refuge utterly in Him.By his grace, you will find supreme peace and the state which is beyond all change" [10].Primary School Teachers' Perspectives iii "The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace" [35].iv "All things exist for world peace."--Perfect Liberty Kyodan "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God" [37].v "If a man sings of God and hears of Him, and lets the love of God sprout within him, All his sorrows shall vanish, And in his mind, God will bestow abiding peace" [29].All the five religions of the world agree that peace can be achieved through justice, love for humanity, tolerance, patience, and Justice which is the nonappearance of all forms of oppression and violence.Peace is not the legacy of any religion but it is the legacy of humanity.
The term peace has been explained by various researchers according to their context.There are similar to some extent.If we look at the creation of this universe, from the small particle to the large galaxies all are working in a natural way.To create peace in society is to give freedom to all.

Effect of Terrorism on Society
A collection of persons participating in insistent societal collaboration is called a society.Moreover, a large group of people sharing the same social or geographical territory, characteristically governed by the alike dominant cultural and political or administrative authority is known as a society [5].Further, Farooq explains that society as "Individual is the basic component of society.The interaction of individuals with each other gives birth to a group.The social groups interact with each other and develop relationships with each other, leading to a society.The players in football or other games came together as not a society, but just an aggregate of people.Within society, there are patterns and groupings based on likenesses and differences.'Likeness' creates a chain of relations among the individuals having similarity in one or more conditions' like same profession, same residence, same caste, family and kinship, college, age, sex, etc [14].Society is a social relationship among the individuals of a family, from different families to families.But terrorism affected these relations adversely.Several families became IDPs and went to different safe areas.The fundamental and social values completely demolish during terrorism.Social values that are tolerance, respect, honesty, loyalty, etc. vanish from society.Society becomes like a Jungle (Forest).Everyone protects himself and ignores the other.The finding of various studies reveals that terrorism is very dangerous for society.In the age of terrorism, terror and fear remain with an individual whether he is at home or out of the home.Terrorism has a vast effect on society.
According to the World Economic Forum "Terrorists are destroying our cultural heritage, The destruction of culture has become an instrument of terror, in a global strategy to undermine societies, propagate intolerance and erase memories.This cultural cleansing is a war crime that is now used as a tactic of war, to tear humanity from the history it shares" [41].
The social relationship does not remain in terrorismaffected areas.Several families became IDPs and went to different safe areas.Terrorism has adverse effects on fundamental and social rights.Smith explains the effect of terrorism on society as "Social norms change for people living with a consistent presence of terrorism in their lives.Conversation, daily concerns, and living with the heightened risks of sudden, violent injury or death can change people's expectations, actions, outlooks, and interactions with one another" [33].
Abbasi states as "Generally, one of the worst impacts of the war on terror on the Pakistani society has been that religious intolerance has become rampant; people have taken the law in their hands, weaponization is common, people have turned against anti-state and law enforcement agencies, including the military for wreaking this tyranny on the people" [2].A peaceful Society is completely based on the values and norms of a societal culture.Hate, insult, intolerance, untrusted, and doubtful views promote terrorism affected society.

Role of Primary School Teachers in Peace
Primary education plays the vital role in promoting peace.In this regard Montessori, has been said that "education is the weapon of peace, which will forge men and women of peace" [24].Primary school teacher is the basic unit of society because primary school teacher prepares young children for useful society.According to the famous quote Montessori "Averting war is the work of politicians; establishing peace is the work of education" [25].School and society are closely related to each other.The school has a great influence on society and similarly society has a great influence on the school.If the teacher's behavior in school is coordinated, cooperative, and democratic then in society democratic and coordinated traditions emerge.If the teacher's behavior is undemocratic and non-cooperative then similar values emerge in society.Primary school is the first place where children get their initial mental development.If in the initial stage, the children get the wrong direction then it will create problems in the future, because if the habit becomes strong then it is not easy to change.Similarly, if the child develops good habits in school then it has a positive impact on society.School is an essential part of society, without school a society cannot develop [3].Gandhi once stated, "If we are to reach real peace in this world we shall have to begin with the children."Durable peace depends upon the education of upcoming generations like the behavioral patterns, competencies, values, perspectives, and attitudes that will allow them to maintain and shape peace [21].He emphasized the role of primary school teachers.Primary school teachers inculcate a sense of cooperation, respect, and honesty in the mind of children.Primary school teachers play a vital role in promoting peace and harmony among the children in the classroom along with educational activities.Socialization is the most important function of education.Primary school teachers have to teach the children the norms, values, and skills according to the need for a peaceful society.Children are the future of society and it's peaceful in their gentle hands, and teachers can make them able to form the coming time.
A primary school is a place where children make their social groups after their family.In this regard, Begum said that "Arguably, in order to improve the future human relations in all walks of life, the young generation has to play a pivotal role.This is the generation that has to lead in the future and can be expected to cultivate a peaceful world environment.Hence, the kind of knowledge and experience received by this generation at their schooling age today will exert a huge influence on the visualization of a peaceful world society in the future" [4].
Primary education conveys values, attitudes, knowledge, and skills that are important for the political, economic, and social development of a country.Primary education can promote peace and provide safe environments as explained by Hintz and Stitz "As children develop their attitudes about self and others in school groups, they are learning to co-exist in harmony with others who may be from different cultures or socioeconomic groups.In the process, they learn to problem-solve, communicate and resolve conflicts with others.Ideally, they are also honing the cognitive and affective skills needed for responsible citizenry in our democracy" [19].In primary school, different families' children come to school and the teachers seat them in one classroom.From here these young children learn the lesson of harmony.The teachers help these children in understanding and promoting the skills of living together.Teachers are members of society so they transfer the values of society to children in school.Every society has different values and norms.Ethical values are universal and cannot be considered the property of any religion.It is the property of humanity.Teachers have to encourage their students to learn the truth, peace, justice, seal, love, etc., and keep away from lies, animosity, hatred, cruelty, and murder.
Katar describes the responsibility of teachers to promote peace in society as "Teachers are the most affecting factor in a school setting so for peace education.Peace education depends on the teacher's sense of responsibility and responsiveness toward the students.Teachers play the role of parents and guardians for the community at schools.Taking these responsibilities and having the capacities they can sow the seeds of peace among the students.Students needed to learn the different values for the inculcation of Peace among themselves and peaceful society" [22].

Teaching Values
i Religious values.Peace is the highest value of every religion in the world.Each religion of the world imparts the knowledge of peace to its followers.

Objectives of the Study
1) To explore the role of primary school teachers in promoting peace and harmony in terrorism affected areas.2) To find out the values and skills necessary for primary school children to promote peace and harmony in terrorism affected society.3) To suggest the possible ways for promoting peace and harmony in society in terrorism-affected areas.

Method
The study was descriptive and quantitative in nature.All the male primary school teachers working in the terrorismaffected area of Districts Malakand and Dir Lower in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa constituted the population of this research study.The female teachers could not be selected due to cultural reasons.

Participants
A sample of 150 teachers was conveniently selected from two terrorism-affected districts: district Dir (Lower) and district Malakand.These districts were selected because the problem of terrorism started in these districts largely.

Instrumentation
A self-developed close-ended questionnaire was used as a data collection instrument which consisted of five factors Primary School Teachers' Perspectives most frequently discussed in the literature such as Religious Values, Social Values, Universal Values, Social Skills, and Teaching Strategies and each factor include ten items on a five-point Likert scale (Strongly Agree, Agree, Unknown, Disagree and Strongly Disagreed) in consultation with the experts of the concerned field.

Data Collection
Data were collected through personal visits to schools in the two districts.Questionnaires were distributed among those teachers who were willing to participate in the study.Thus, before giving them the questionnaire, proper permission was sought from each of the teachers.

Data Analysis
Data were analyzed based on simple percentage and frequency statistics.The data was first entered on SPSS version 20.All the missing values were properly checked.

Data Analysis and Finding
Data was collected through self-visit.Data analysis is presented as follows.  1 contains the percentage and frequency for the 10 measures of religious values regarding the promotion of peace in terrorism affected society.The all (100%) teachers expressed that they teach the children that the Creator of this universe is the only Allah (God) and majority of teachers 93% strongly agreed that they teach the children the teachings of the Holy prophet, their spiritual leaders.The majority of teachers responded that they teach children that suicide is forbidden in Islam.Majority (94%) of teachers claimed that they children that killing a human being is equivalent to the killing of whole humanity.Majority (86%) of teachers strongly agreed that they teach human rights to children.Majority (90%) of teachers strongly agreed that they boost children to be kind with their parents.Majority (88%) of teachers strongly agreed that they encourage children to be patient.Majority (80.7%) of teachers strongly agreed that they teach children to protect the dignity of others.Majority (68%) of teachers strongly agreed and 32% agreed that they teach children to speak the truth.64% teachers strongly agreed and 35% agreed that they teach children about the rights of neighbours.Table 3 depicts the responding of teachers regarding to the ten different measures of universal values towards the promotion of peace in terrorism affected area.Majority (65.3%) teachers strongly agreed and 33.3% agreed that they teach peace to children.Majority of (65.3%) teachers strongly agreed and 34% agreed that they teach the children about the equality of human being.Majority (64%) teachers strongly agreed and 36% agreed that they teach children tolerance.Many (52%) teachers strongly agreed and 40% agreed that they teach children to respect others' ideological thoughts or beliefs.Many (49%) of teachers strongly agreed and 49% agreed that they teach the children respects of others' culture.Many (59.3%) of teachers strongly agreed and 38.7% agreed that they promote sense of freedom in children.Majority (66.32%) of teachers strongly agreed and 32% agreed that they discourage hatred among children to promote peace in society.Many (54%) of teachers strongly agreed and 39.3% agreed that they teach the children to respect various religious sects.Majority (68.6%) of teachers strongly agreed and 30.7% agreed that they try to cultivate the seeds of love in children.
Table 5 depicts the perspectives of teachers about the ten measures of teaching/activities regarding to promoting peace in society.Majority of teachers strongly agreed (68.7%) and agreed (31.3%) that they create peaceful environment in classroom.Majority of teachers strongly agreed (72%) and agreed (27.3%) that they emphasize on the spiritual training of children.Majority of teachers strongly agreed (66%) and agreed (34%) that they create an atmosphere of unity in the classroom.Majority of teachers strongly agreed (61.3%) and agreed (36.7%) responded that they tell children peace stories.Majority of teachers strongly agreed (44.7%) and agreed (49.3%) responded that they sing a song of peace in the classroom.Majority of teachers strongly agreed (50.7%) and agreed (48%) that they promote a friendly atmosphere in the classroom.Majority of teachers strongly agreed (58.7%) and agreed (40%) that they teach the children to distinguish between good and bad, right and wrong.Majority of teachers strongly agreed (62%) and agreed (38%) that they discourage cheating in children.Majority of teachers strongly agreed (58%) and agreed (40%) that they discourage conflict among children.Majority of teachers strongly agreed (47.4%) and agreed (45.3%) that they sing a song of peace in the classroom.

Discussion
Values are the principles and guiding standards of a society.If these values exist in society then society doesn't go towards deformation.These values keep society stable.But due to terrorist activities, these values disappear from society and similarly, society became terrorist-affected [20].
An objective of the primary-level teacher is to emphasize the development of children and to prepare them for future challenges and a peaceful society [11].This study explores the perspectives of primary school teachers who are working in terrorism-affected areas regarding promoting peace in terrorism-affected society.This study highlights those values which are very necessary for a peaceful society.From the present investigation, it is found that religious values are very important to teach children because peace has the same meaning in all religions of the world.Every spiritual leader has been preaching peace.Suicide is forbidden in Islam.The study affirmed that primary education provided a long-term solution and strategies for the prevention of terrorism and peace-building if social values promote in primary school children.This study indicates that teaching universal values creates a sense of respect for others and religion in children.The study also revealed that the developing social skills of children help in the prevention of terrorism and promoting peace in a terrorism-affected society.Primary school teachers are role models for children.The teachers simulate their children for peace in society.The result shows that teachers should create an environment of peace, unity, and a friendly atmosphere in the classroom.Every peaceful activity creates peaceful students.Sing songs of peace in the classroom.Giving spiritual training to children.[4] Also says that the young generation plays a pivotal role in creating a peaceful society.[8] found out that engaging the students in solving issues and problems of society within the school environment promotes peace.This study is lined with the study of Johnson and Johnson who cited Gandhi who once stated, "If we are to reach real peace in this world we shall have to begin with the children" similarly according to [9] "Lasting peace may depend on educating future generations into the competencies, perspectives, attitudes, values, and behavioral patterns that will enable them to build and maintain peace"

Conclusion
The basis of analysis of this study concludes that children play a significant role in the formation of society so must teach the values of a peaceful society to children.Every society is based on religion or some faith to preach peace.Most primary school teachers teach the children values according to their religion.Social values are extremely useful for the formation of a peaceful society.
Terrorism first severely affects society to create disturbance in a peaceful society by destroying its social values.Universal values promote harmony among the different religions and sects because they are worldwide accepted so the teachers promote social and universal values among primary school children.Soft communication is indispensable for a peaceful society.Social skills develop communication and how to behave each other in society so promoting social skills in children is important.For primary school children, the behavior of the teacher is a great lesson, in a classroom; most teachers promote peaceful activities among students.The above discussion concludes that teaching and promoting different values in primary school children is the practice of the primary school teachers of terrorist-affected areas to prevent terrorism and form a peaceful society.

Recommendations
Based on the analysis of the study, the following recommendations are made: 1. Proper training must be given to primary school teachers regarding promoting peace and the prevention of terrorism in society.2. Though religious values were found on the highest level in the present study, primary school teachers should continue their attention on true religious or spiritual values to children. 3.In primary school, social practices must include in a curriculum.4. Planner of curriculum may include the concepts about peace education in the national education curriculum.

Suggestions for Future Research
In Pakistan, the most terrorism-affected provinces are Baluchistan and Khyber Pukhtunkhwa.This study was conducted in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, It is suggested that a similar study may be conducted in Baluchistan.The present study is based on a quantitative method.It is suggested to apply the qualitative method.This would bring more comprehensive results regarding promoting peace in terroristaffected area.
Religion shows the way of living peacefully.Most religious values originate from the sacred book of each respective religion.Goodness, righteousness, love, Truth, etc. are religious values [17].ii Social values.Social values are invaluable for promoting peace and harmony in society.Social values develop the behaviors of children.Social values are guidelines for social conduct.Values such as honesty, sedulity, helpfulness, and modesty are; respect for human dignity, equality, individuality, sacrifice, rationality, and democracy.Some societal values guide the behavior of children in many ways.

Table 1 .
Perception of Teachers regarding to Religious Value.

Table 2 .
Perception of Teachers Regarding Social Values.