Heritage

116 heritage for peace and reconciliation | manual for teacherContentsthe UN asked Member States, both on local and national levels, to formulaterecommendations which could serve as a source of inspiration for the draftingof an international agreement. As a focal point for the International Year forthe Culture of Peace, and lead agency for the Decade, UNESCO developed aninteractive website allowing those involved in the movement to promote theirinitiatives and to exchange information and resources, creating better interaction.Peace education plays a key role in the United Nations Global Education First Initiative(GEFI), which calls on governments to place education at the top of theiragenda. The Initiative was established by the United Nations Secretary-General at theUN General Assembly in September 2012. It aims to make education a top global priority.The initiative calls for global partnerships to invest more in education, focusingon three priorities in the next five years:• Putting every child in school, in order to achieve universal primary education by2015 and beyond.• Improving the quality of learning, to ensure that people acquire the relevantskills needed in a knowledge-based society.• Fostering global citizenship, to build a sustainable future and better world witheducation policies that promote peace, mutual respect and environmental care.UNESCO has a lead role in shaping the Global Education First Initiative, in particularin the area of global citizenship education. Global Citizenship Education (GCE)is a framing paradigm that expresses the collective purpose of education in an increasinglyinterdependent and interconnected world. It aims to develop the knowledge,skills, values and attitudes learners need for securing a more just, peaceful, tolerant,inclusive, secure and sustainable world.Suggested reading:Global Citizenship Education: An Emerging Perspective http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002241/224115E.pdfPreparing learners for the challenges of the 21st centuryhttp://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002277/227729e.pdfIt is no coincidence that the Global Education First Initiative was launched in September2012. The International Day of Peace, marked on 21 September each year,