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Ministry of Education and Higher Education Update on the Palestinian Curricula Project
History and background
The public pressure on the newly established Palestinian Ministry of Education to replace the two curricula in West bank and Gaza hurried the Ministry to initiate discussions and to establish a specialized center to assume this responsibility. The Center was established in October 1995 with financial and technical support from Italy and UNESCO. Two years 96-97 were devoted for drafting a plan preceded by researching, data collection and a first drafting in 94-95.
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 plan was submitted by the Ministry of Education to the Legislative council and the Cabinet and consequently ratified in 1997. The first phase of implementation started with preparing the subjects syllabi (Guidelines), which were evaluated by Morocco as recommended by UNESCO. Also, they were subjected to local evaluations by Palestinian scholars.
Educationally sound
The educational reform the Ministry envisaged was multifaceted and tentative at the assumption of power partially due to lack of data necessary to take decisions but finally the Ministry succeeded in drafting its first five year plan in which curricula development was one of its main premises.
The Palestinian people engaged in a serious and dedicated effort to resurrect their educational system tackling the deterioration befallen on it during occupation. This plan is also perceived as an opportunity for content, scientific and pedagogical development for the Palestinian Educational system. Since its inception, PCDC (Palestinian Curricula development center) committed itself to involve a broad base of local academicians, educators and teachers in a democratic process to develop national curricula capable of bringing about a genuine transformation in the different developmental aspects of the Palestinian people. The innovative aspect of this project is multifaceted: it includes new subjects mostly recommended by UNESCO and coinciding with a modern outlook on the role of education in the 21 century.
A number of significant improvements have been introduced in the new curriculum:1. English as a second language is to be taught from the first grade rather from the fifth grade as was case in the old curricula. Pupils will receive twelve years of English instruction instead of eight. This emphasis is to equip high- school graduates with a higher level of competence in English so as to achieve two aims: greater openness to world culture in which English occupies a prominent position, and better competitiveness on the labor market.
2. Civic Education is an important innovation as a new subject which focuses on helping develop a democratic citizen, a citizen capable of fully functioning in society realizing its importance as Palestine is moving towards independence and the inclusion of national education in social studies. These two subjects will be taught in grade in grades 1-10. They complement the already existing religious education (which is taught throughout the twelve years) and provide a broader and more balanced foundation for the formation of individual and group identities.
3. Arts and Crafts are a new subject added to the curriculum throughout the twelve years of the school cycle. This aims at providing an opportunity for pupils to pursue their interests and develop their talents. It also introduces an aesthetic dimension which is totally absent from the old curricula.
4. Technology is another new subject and to be taught in grades 5-12. It emphasizes the development of an understanding of computers and other scientific tools and techniques. This subject is an extremely significant modernization of an outdated curriculum and represent a major component for the development of Palestinian human resources and hence the sustainability of the Palestinian economy.
5. Elective Subjects include other aspects of the curriculum in grades 5-10; this could be a third language (French, Germany, or Hebrew) Health and Environmental studies or home economics.
These changes in the curriculum are introduced alongside the main subjects of the old curricula, namely, mathematics , science (a combined subject in the lower grades and then split biology, chemistry, and physics in the upper grades), and social studies subject in the lower grades and then split into management and economics , geography, and history in the upper grades ). While these subjects remain as in the old curricula, several changes in content and methodology are envisaged.
The curricula promote students faculties of Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking, Decision Making and Problem Solving. Also, the instructional strategies were improved in the sense of providing opportunities for role-playing simulation, case studies and cooperative learning techniques. Old fashion educational techniques were abolished like rote learning. Only functional memorization was maintained.
The curricula approach is student centered and it employ diverse learning styles to account for multiplicity of learners learning styles. There fore, many subjects employ issues and activity based styles too.
There are serious attempts to inculcate international values by encouraging respect of other cultures, promoting peace values, international values (human rights, freedom of speech, justice and justice system, democracy voluntary work, respect of law, diversity, tolerance, pluralism, and global environmental awareness) to mention a few. Special attention is given to women and children issues and roles.
Procedure
At all of these stages, the Ministry of Education (MEHE) chose to involve a broad base of local academicians, educators, and experts in teaching, supervision, materials development, etc. In selecting authors, certain criteria were observed, such as geographical location and gender.
After a team of academicians chosen according to already set and approved standards to develop the curricula spending between 6 to 8 months during that time revisions take place and finally the work is submitted by a group of practitioners whose feed back is integrated in a version to be sent ,after technical processes, to a ministerial committees for approval. The following formative evaluation activity takes a whole year in which a representative group of teachers follow up through a systemic process on trialing the material for the whole scholastic year. The feed back is integrated into textbooks in the following edition.
The rest of the phases come as follow: Phase 1: Subjects syllabi (Guidelines) (Finished -1999) Phase 2: Textbooks for grades 1& 6 (Finished -2000) Phase 3: Textbooks for grades 2&7 (Finished -2001) Phase 4: Textbooks for grades 3&8 (Finished 2002) Phase 5: Textbooks for grades 4& 9 (Finished 2003) Phase 6: Textbooks for grades 5&10 (Underway- 2004) Phase 7: Textbooks for grade 11 (2005) Phase 8: Textbooks for grade 12 (2006)
Plan of work:
The 226 books produced till now are Authored, typed, layed out, reviewed as versions between 3-5 times, edited scientifically and linguistically, evaluated and approved by ministerial committees; then a camera ready film is handed to Textbook printing for printing and distributing them to schools. All these processes are conducted at PCDC.
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.
After planning the project to be implemented post Oslo interim period, the Ministry of Education adopted an approach which ignores the animosity, and tension to make available a milieu conducive to peace in the region. Politically, the Curricula remain to be a tentative and a transitional attempt to account for the political complexities. The textbooks abided by international legality by referring to UN resolutions in the different political contexts.
The political nature of the current transitional situation 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. At the same time, the educational system is expected to support the national aspirations of the Palestinian people based on international legality.
During the past three years, there has been a significant interest in the issue of the Palestinian textbooks, both locally and internationally. The international interest and questioning, though, were mainly focused on what Palestinian children study at school. There was no similar interest in what their Israeli counterparts study. The textbooks used in Palestinian schools were under continuous scrutiny, mainly by an NGO entitled the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP). CMIP looked into textbooks used in Palestinian schools. Its reports on this subject were mainly used to argue against providing assistance to the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) and UNRWA in the USA congress and European parliaments. The Ministry has warned in its clarifications about the propaganda nature of CIMP reports and called for experts in subject matters and Arabic language to be involved So far, MEHE has issued three clarifications to shed light on the controversy. We now feel that the internationally waged campaign regarding the Palestinian textbooks has ended with substantiating evidence, research based ones, which attests to their peaceful orientation and consistency regardless of the fluctuating political atmosphere. The independent researchers like Nathan Brown, the EU statement and finally the American funded IPECRI research which is both Israeli and Palestinian co-managed has reached the same conclusion.
“The Palestinian Curriculum Development Center is producing textbooks up to high international standards in content and presentation, with well-functioning quality criteria and quality assurance mechanisms. They build identity and promote positive values in a more progressive way than many other countries in the region, both Hebrew and Arabic speaking.” MTR-2002 (Dr. Roger Avenstrup- BTC consultant).
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