Background and Vision

The Palestinian Curriculum Plan came after five years of brainstorming, data collecting, reviewing and exploring the experiences of countries in the region and in many other parts of the world. The plan aimed at replacing the Jordanian and Egyptian curricula used in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, respectively, by new, unified curricula that reflect the aspirations and hopes of the Palestinian people.

The vision for the First Palestinian Curriculum Plan called for the introduction of many new and innovative disciplines and topics, such as: Technology, Health, Environment, Civic Education, Music and Drama, Christian Education, and English from the first grade. It also called for an emphasis on important topics such as: International values, Democracy, Tolerance, Child Rights, Women Rights and Empowerment, Life Skills, and many other topics.

The project passed through different stages:

1. Two years of research and first drafting characterized by data collection about the Palestinian educational system (1994-95).

2. 2. Two more years were also devoted to the final draft (96-97).

3. 3. One year for preparing the guidelines for all the subjects where Morocco has participated by evaluating them all (98).

4. Implementation Stage:

a. Phase One: Producing textbooks for grades 1 & 6 (1999-2000)

b. Phase Two: Producing textbooks for grades 2 & 7 (2000-2001)

c. Phase Three: Producing textbooks for grades 3 & 8 (2001-2002 - underway).

At all of these stages, the Ministry of Education (MOE) chose to involve a broad base of local academicians, educators, and experts in teaching, supervision, materials development, etc. The final work of all the teams involved is reviewed by three approval committees commissioned by the Ministry. The three committees are comprised of 30 high-ranking officials and academicians in the Ministry.

Highlights of the Experience:

1. The plan was originally made to be implemented in a time of peace and so it included a foreign language component, including French, Hebrew and German.

2. The original plan for textbook accreditation consisted of four different phases: Authoring, Trialing and Enrichment, Content Analysis, and Evaluation. The trialing phase was planned to take only one year at the end of which a final edition would be produced based on feedback obtained from the field (i.e. subject teachers and supervisors). Now because of the difficult political situation, the trialing editions are still in use for the second year.

3. The interest in the Palestinian Development Project came as a result of its emergence in a period of political juncture. Contrary to expectations, most of its activities are taking place in a time of turmoil, thus posing a further challenge to the Ministry of Education and the Curriculum Development Center. However, the system adopted for that purpose has proved to be effective and representative of the national endeavor to bring about a curriculum with the participation of all concerned parties.

4. The ministry of Education is very keen to insure that values, attitudes, orientations are mainstreamed. In selecting authors, certain criteria were observed, such as geographical location and gender. The number of participants so far has exceeded one thousand. As for Religious Education, the Ministry intentionally selected a coordinator who had participated in interfaith dialogue.

5. The social, historic and economic aspects of curriculum development to mention a few, have been given primacy over the political aspect in curriculum development. The curriculum traces the development of the Palestinian people throughout history; therefore, mentioning the names of certain cities that are related to particular historical events is natural and bears no political ramifications.

In our case, however, political interpretations are overriding, although they shouldn't especially in view of the challenges we face in relating the textbooks to our reality.

. School curricula disseminate beliefs, experiences, knowledge, attitudes, values that promote human values. They prepare the child to accept and appreciate the other's way of life. It also capitalizes on similarities rather than differences. Nothing in the curricula can hurt the chances of peace. Facts are merely presented; stereotyping, racism, bigotry and inequality and alike curricula problems do not exist. There are many instances where monotheistic religions are mentioned for the sole purpose of teaching students acceptance and tolerance.

In a content analysis study of the new Palestinian curricula by Issa Abu Zahira of Alquds University, it was found that "the concept tolerance was mentioned 59 times in first grade books, 169 times in sixth grade books while democracy was mentioned 51 times in first grade books and 149 times in sixth grade books."

7. The curricula project is established on well studied and researched guidelines. The Ministry has delayed the publication of these guidelines as changes are taking place on certain aspects of the plan, consequently reviews will follow. Some expectations of the plan require the existence of certain infrastructure, which is not yet available.

Topics in textbooks are introduced according to these guidelines. Peace, for example, is a political issue not a historical one, and consequently it is dealt with as such.

8. Curricula development is part of a whole. The background is multifaceted. It takes its statistics about population distribution, for example, from the Bureau of Statistics. In naming things, it cannot generate its own terminology; they are culturally based.

9. Curricula are not static, they are dynamic. The section about the "Crusaders" in the sixth grade history book ended with an attempt to mollify the reader and help him to recognize the good present relationships with Europe.

10. The political nature of the current transitional period require a strategy which goes along with the realities of the time; that is, to help minimize animosity, but never to put a face value on the period to avoid contradictions with reality. The educational system is expected to support the national aspirations of the Palestinian people based on international legality, consequently, certain strategies had to be followed:

A. The Ministry chose to use the term "historical Palestine" to be able to introduce and celebrate the Palestinian culture and heritage past and present regardless of the complexities of the political scene in this period.

B. Despite the fact that Israel is capable of delineating its borders, Israelis choose to use the term "Eretz Yisrael," which is a historical a geographical term.

C) The maps used in textbooks are educational and reflect an understanding that maps should be left to a later political period, when political geography can be dealt with clearly and after a political settlement has been achieved. Israel, does not deal with this aspect as well.

1. The curricula are expected to support the national aspirations. The facts springing from these aspirations are sometimes believed by some to breed “contempt” but in fact they breed understanding and clarity.

2. Despite the political reality of the Palestinian people, the educational goal behind designing the curricula plan was overriding. There has been no deliberate intent to use the new curricula as a political instrument, most importantly because they were meant to be used in a time of peace.

3 A scientific analysis of the content of curricula requires experts in the subject matter as well as professionals in materials design and writing. Non-specialist readers are not equipped to do such an analysis particularly because issues are to be judged against a context, which is not available in the textbooks themselves.

Some of the reports on the new curricula had to reconsider parts of these reports as more professional people are indulged in professional investigation e.g. and Mustafa Dabagh narrative (sixth grade Arabic language book, part I, p. 110). In other cases, exaggerated interpretations of quotation from the textbooks were deleted from these reports as a result of the lack of a methodological skills.

4. The addition of National and Civic Education disciplines ushers in an attempt to instill in the Palestinian children's consciousness a commitment to immediate realities, culture and values and desire to reaching out to international values.