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Teacher's group meeting with Pax Christi
On Saturday February 14th, 2009 a group from Pax Christi- UK
visited the Arab Educational Institute (AEI-
Open windows) at the Sumud/ Story House premises
and met with the Teacher’s group of the AEI.
The session started by welcoming and introducing one another by Mr. Fuad
Giacaman, where he introduced the Teacher’s
Group and spoke about its aims and work and
about the school network that the AEI works
with.
Then, Mr. Abdallah Shakarneh, Director of the Ministry of Education
office spoke about the Palestinian curriculum.
He explained that prior to 1994 (the creation of
the Palestinian National Authority) Palestinian
schools in the West Bank used to follow the
Jordanian curriculum and Gaza strip followed the
Egyptian curriculum. Though from 1994-2000 the
PNA worked to unify the curriculum and slowly
changing the school textbooks, and the class of
tawjihi 2007 was the first to hold the
examination.
The aims of the new curriculum were to be: New, modern, and to present
the students with communication materials and
openness to the outside world. The change in
some schools was that they started teaching
English from the first grade, and to study
another language either French or German. New
topics were added such as technical sciences,
national education, and the vocational education
. The plan was to also teach students about the
various backgrounds in Palestine and to teach
about the history of Palestine, peace education
and the concept of accepting of the other.
Despite this, Israel claimed that the curriculum
was bias and contains insults against the
Israelis, but researches and scholars have
proved that this is not true and the new
curriculum in fact didn’t contain any insults.
There were also some complaints from the school
teachers and students about the curriculum that
it was difficult and long.
Afterwards, there was a chance for asking questions and discussion about
this topic. The main concern was how can we
teach students about accepting the other and
peace concepts when they see the reality of the
occupation is completely different. The
responses were that as teachers they try to
teach the children how to know about the other
and express themselves in non violent ways and
directing this anger towards something like arts
and give them ways to express themselves despite
the difficulty that it presents. The teachers
spoke about how their students feel especially
about the latest massacre in Gaza, and the
continuous building of the apartheid wall,
occupation and expansion of settlements. It has
become difficult to convince and discuss with
students about concepts of peace and acceptance
when they see the dark reality. The academic
performance of students has deteriorated and
school violence has become a way of expressing
themselves because they are affected by the
violent images they see on T.V.
The discussion continued with the Pax Christi group talking about their
educational system. John explained that in 1988
the National Curriculum was introduced in
Britain and the concept of local management of
schools (LMS) was presented. Every teacher was
obliged to teach 12-15 hours and the teachers
had to take trainings for 5 days a week on what
was called B-day.
The first topic required was religious education then, math, science,
history and geography. Additional topics like
drama, computer, foreign language and ICT were
required. He discussed that in September 2008
the students who started the year before were
called Google Children as they were born exactly
with Google 11 years ago, children entering
school at that time could find information with
a click.
There has been an argument that faith schools in Britain divide people as
each faith teaches differently than the other,
some find this is not true and that faith
schools give you the religious education that is
needed.
Afterwards, Ann discussed how she as, an active teacher, takes part in
producing materials for students and how this
was difficult to make as you had to be neutral
despite your political belief.
Teaching about Palestine for example had to be about both Palestine and
Israel without taking sides. She expressed how
it’s difficult to show Israel’s occupation to
Palestine without being bias.
Later, John discussed about Northern Ireland and how schools are divided
between Catholic and Protestant and that schools
have 40% Catholics, 40% Protestants and 20% from
other backgrounds. Though at a time it was
difficult to find people from other backgrounds
now schools have many Muslims that join the
schools. Their Curriculum was a mix of both
British and Irish literature, music and language
as a way to keep the Irish heritage alive to
permit students to learn about their background.
The discussion ended with questions about the schools and some practical
suggestions of future collaboration between
schools in Britain and in Palestine.
Later that evening, there was a meeting with the Parents’ Group, Women’s
Group and the UK guests. After welcoming them,
Ms. Ann Farr introduced the candle vigil
campaign and how at that time other people in
Gaza, Bethlehem, Coventry- Britain and
Hiroshima- Japan were doing the same in
solidarity with Gaza and praying for peace. The
candle light vigil was held near Rachel’s Tomb
area where prayer, for security, justice and
peace were said. A two minutes of silence in
memory of the martyrs in Gaza, a reading from
the Gospel and Quran, collective peace song, and
reading of wishes and prayers from AEI youth
group members, Pax Christi, and World Council of
Churches followed. After the candle light vigil,
a short presentation about love on the occasion
of Valentine’s day by Mrs. Nadia Ghawali was
given.
Then, a political debate was presented by Dr. Walid Mustafa talking
about: “After Gaza war, where is our national
unity and national struggle?” He discussed the
situation in Gaza and the negative effects of
the internal division and fights among
Palestinians affect our day to day life and our
Palestinian- Israeli conflict. He emphasized our
unity first, discuss what is feasible and
accepting the other despite the different
political agenda.
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