Tony Blair’s Faith Foundation launches global education program
On Tuesday 9th June, Tony Blair and the Faith Foundation launched a global education program with the aim of fostering understanding between the world’s major religions.
The massive project is intended to promote dialogue between young people from different faiths and backgrounds. According to Tony Blair, the global education program is critical in a globalised, interconnected and interdependent world of 4 billion people. Mr Blair argues that religious literacy is a vital skill in a globalised and multicultural society.
The “Face to Faith” scheme will use online forums, video conferencing, and a course syllabus to run discussion and debates between groups of 11 to 16-year-olds from different religions. Face to Faith also contributes to the project component of the ‘Global Perspectives’ IGSCE from Cambridge Assessment as well as to a range of national RE, Humanities, Social Sciences and Citizenship qualifications and curricula.
Dr Moyes said, “This is a wonderful initiative by the Faith Foundation. Technology is harnessed to create a new generation that fosters mutual understanding and respect. The use of technology and the Internet in this program will encourage students of different faiths and cultures to learn from each other and promote active dialogue at a young age. The program will help dispel myths and generalisations about different religions amongst young people.”
The program has already been taken up by schools in India, Singapore, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Thailand, Indonesia, Lebanon, the US, UK and Canada. The young people involved in the pilot are already reporting how their understanding of the role of faith in today’s world has increased by learning from those of differing social, cultural and religious perspectives.
As a student from The Indian Heights School in New Delhi commented: “It’s so much more interesting and real to learn directly from people of a different religion rather than simply reading about them in a book.”