The Faisal Husseini Foundation launches a campaign entitled “Buy Time for Jerusalem Schools -2022”, that aims at supporting efforts to preserve the identity of Palestinian education in Jerusalem.  To achieve this goal, the campaign will focus on three frameworks:

 

First: Raising awareness about the situation of education in Jerusalem and surrounding challenges, particularly with regard to the protection of the Palestinian identity.

Second: Raising awareness on the roles that everyone interested in the issue of education in Jerusalem can take.

Third: Supporting the Faisal Husseini Foundation's education programs in Jerusalem.

 

 

 

First: Raising awareness about the situation of education in Jerusalem and surrounding challenges, particularly with regard to the protection of the Palestinian identity.

 

In the 2021/2022 school year, there are about 98 thousand Palestinian students studying in East Jerusalem schools, including 45 thousand students studying in schools affiliated with the Palestinian umbrella.

Schools working under the Palestinian umbrella are constantly being restricted and are facing attempts to close them. The biggest challenge lies in the continued attempts of the occupying authorities to impose their curriculum on schools and to implement their plan to shift from the Palestinian curriculum to an Israeli curriculum.  This aims at expelling Palestinians from their national identity, an issue that Palestinians in Jerusalem have resisted for 55 years under occupation. Today 87% of Jerusalem students study the Palestinian curriculum, thus learning the Palestinian narrative, even in the Schools that are controlled by the Municipality of Occupation. However, if the Occupation succeeds in implementing its plan for the next four years, it is expected that this percentage will dwindle year after year to less than 50% at the end of the life of their plan.  This thus can be obstructed if efforts to maintain the Palestinian curriculum are supported.

1. Sufficiency of the number of classes and buildings

The population growth rate for East Jerusalemites is estimated at 2.5%, and the annual need for new classes is estimated at about 80 classes. This number of needed additional classes is not met annually, with an average of nearly half of the needed classes built annually. Schools within the Palestinian umbrella can accommodate about 31,500 students, however, they serve 45,500 students.  Thus, 560 new classes are needed now, in addition to 80 new classes per year. In total, 960 classes need to be added over the next five years.

2. Status of existing buildings

Jerusalem's schools are mostly residential buildings that have been adapted to be used as schools, and do not have all the specifications of the model school. According to the data of the Directorate of Education for the 2019/2020 academic year, the student's area in the classroom in Public Endowments’ schools is approximately 1.60 square meters, compared to 1.52 square meters in private schools, noting that according to international standards, there must be an area of 2 square meters per student.

Of the 146 total schools, only 96 have a science laboratory with an average area of 48.31 square meters, and only 121 have a computer laboratory with an average area of 44.60 square meters. According to 2020 statistics, 83 schools (or 56.85% of schools) need to provide an additional 947 drinking water taps and 716 additional sanitary units, while 50 schools (or 34.25% of schools) need to provide 242 sinks.  Through its infrastructure work in 39 schools in 2021, The Faisal Husseini Foundation covered 14% of schools' need for drinking water taps and is seeking to meet the various remaining needs.

 

3. Building and equipment requirements:

All these schools urgently need ongoing periodic maintenance in order to maintain their durability, whether by carrying out rehabilitation work for their infrastructure — such as walls, floors, windows, doors, sanitary units, laboratories, libraries and playgrounds.  This also includes providing basic needs in schools to serve and provide safety for their students, such as supporting students with special needs with accessible and appropriate facilities (this is not available in approximately 82.19% of schools according to 2020 statistics), fire alarm and extinguishers (this is not available in 15% of schools according to 2020 statistics), shaded areas (this is not available in 26.03% of schools according to 2020 statistics).

According to a study on the needs of appliances and furniture for 116 schools out of 146, conducted by the Foundation in March 2022, the data indicated that schools need devices and furniture valued at $11,814,685.  This is distributed between computers and their accessories of internet programs, networks, scanners, interactive display screens, and office equipment including printers, photocopiers, in addition to furniture for classrooms and educational facilities, and devices and tools for science laboratories and others.

 

Second: Raising awareness on the roles that everyone interested in the issue of education in Jerusalem can take.

Palestinian schools need to be supported with their efforts to face the Occupation plans.  This is represented by a number of means, the most important of which are:

1. Private schools (that receive funding from the Israeli Occupation Municipality) need to be supported by providing them with alternative funding for the Israeli funding that is conditional on the transformation to the Israeli curriculum.  This is critical to support these schools to maintain the independence of their decision and to enable them to keep their doors open, and to ensure that their buildings are protected by the presence of students and staff.
2. Private schools and Public Endowment schools that do not receive funding from Israeli Occupation Municipality) need to be supported with their needs for appliances, furniture, tools, infrastructure and programs to maintain their development process, and to enable these schools to provide high quality education that is attractive to students and parents.
3. Parents, whose children learn in schools run by the Occupation, need to be supported in their struggle to maintain the Palestinian curriculum.

 

Third: Contributing to the support of the Faisal Husseini Foundation's education programs in Jerusalem.

Through this campaign, the Faisal Husseini Foundation seeks your support towards its efforts in supporting Jerusalem schools.  The proceeds of this campaign will be devoted to supporting its infrastructure development program, which will focus in the next phase on supporting schools that suffer from the risks of damage or the worn electricity installations and panels.

It should be noted that over the past 20 years, the Foundation has worked with 95 schools in Jerusalem that are part of the Palestinian umbrella. It worked holistically, and within its program entitled “Comprehensive School Upgrading", with 31 schools.  This included providing training programs and infrastructure development programs, within the vision of developing critical thinking and scientific research education in a school environment that promotes Palestinian identity and that preserves children's rights, democracy and equality.  As part of its training programs, the Foundation worked with school administrations and staff, students and parents to develop common educational visions and concepts that evolve into participatory school constitutions. The Foundation trained teachers on using inquiry based teaching to teach different subjects of natural sciences, history, Arabic language and social studies enabling students to develop higher thinking skills.  This also included training teachers to provide students with skills to build and program robots, as well as training teachers to detect signs of dyslexia.  The Foundation also diagnosed and treated students with learning disabilities in lower grades.

 Under the infrastructure development program, the Foundation worked with 67 schools (including 31 within the comprehensive development program), with a diversity of interventions according to needs in these schools.  The Foundation worked to restore sanitary facilities, increase electricity capacity, establish courtyards, playgrounds and gardens, provide science and computer laboratories and libraries, restore classrooms, provide educational facilities, add shades, construct emergency staircases, install heating units/systems, add sound, protection, and fire systems, and construct a semi-Olympic swimming pool in one school.

 

To donate, please fill out the following form:

  http://www.fhfpal.org/buy-time-in-jerusalem/8246.html

Thank you for your consideration.