Experts in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) took turns for three consecutive days at the Michael Otedola College of Primary Education (MOCPED), Noforija – Epe, Lagos State to instil in the management staff and core academics of the institution ways to access the new dispute management mechanisms in tertiary institutions for peace and progress.

Director, Lagos State Multi-Door Court House (LMDC), Igbosere, Lagos, Mrs. Caroline Etuk, in her keynote address entitled Designing A Whole Institution Dispute Resolution System, the LMDC Model, told participants that the collaborative problem solving approaches expounded in the ADR techniques are the best.

Listing the benefits of ADR when applied to tertiary institutions, Mrs. Etuk said it would among others:

•Enhance students’ social and emotional development, promote a culture of peace and enhanced communication.

•Provide a platform and atmosphere for dialogue.

•Create an environment that is conducive for learning.

She recommended that the new dispute resolution techniques be adopted as parts of college curriculum and management style adding that the skills used in mediation are mostly learned experimentally and that they often applied to different situations.

The LMDC boss was emphatic that students exposed to ADR technology learn hands on, becomes active listeners, they are schooled in conflict styles, anger management, conflict escalation and de-escalation, perspective taking, win-win problem solving, negotiation and mediation.

Mrs. Etuk submitted that by mirroring, the students had the golden opportunity to observe adult behavioural patterns and conflict resolution techniques.

The application of ADR techniques in school system would additionally foster the infusion of conflict resolution skills at the classroom, school-wide levels and engender interactions with parents, posited the LMDC boss

The dire consequence of neglecting dispute resolution education is to pass the problem to the larger society, Mrs. Utuk warned, urging all tertiary institutions to urgently start on-campus mediation programmes and advocated university-wide grievance and dispute systems designs like the ombudsman.

They are also expected to implement a peer mediation programme, begin conflict resolution and teacher education.

Tertiary institutions are advised to train in-house experts whose roles must include the development of pracademics – academics on campus, teaching, researching and publishing as experts in conflict resolution.

The experts are parts of the academic culture which create the conflict they seek to help solve, or shape into a constructive force for change and are called upon to participate in dispute resolution in order to serve the academic community, test their theories and skills and obtain support from administrators.

To install peace in tertiary institutions, the establishment of a working group on conflict resolution education to liaise with academic institutions, states and the Federal Government to design and deploy conflict resolution models is most desirable, posited Mrs Etuk.

Such establishment would promote research and source for requisite funding and propose policies for implementation by institutions.