Progress Report for the Education Sector

2008 Progress Report

Comprehensive development project for 10 Jerusalem schools

Comprehensive School Upgrading Project

The Comprehensive School Upgrading Project aims at ensuring that all children in East Jerusalem enjoy their right to education in a protective and child-friendly environment.

The project more specifically aims at increasing the involvement and support of parents and guardians in their children’s education; improving the institutional capacity and physical environment of 8 schools in East Jerusalem and effectively engaging relevant duty-bearers in the change process (in particular, teachers and school management); strengthening the capacities of teachers in 4 core subjects (Mathematics, Arabic, English and Science) and ensuring that teachers practice interactive and modern teaching methods; and finally, improving the skills and achievements of students and empowering them to make and voice their choices and opinions about their education.

The two-year project is funded by the European Union and is being implemented in cooperation with Save the Children – Sweden.

The project targets eight schools, 153 teachers, 1,881 school children between the ages of 4-17 and 3,712 parents / guardians through activities to be implemented over two years. These schools are:

• Al-Nahda “A” – The Old City of Jerusalem
• Al-Nahda “B” – The Old City of Jerusalem
• St. Dimitri School – The Old City of Jerusalem
• St. Tarkmanchatz – The Old City of Jerusalem
• Dar Al-Awlad School (orphanage) – Wadi Al Jouz, Jerusalem
• Doha School – Wadi Al Jouz, Jerusalem
• Dar Al-Aytam “D” – Wadi Al Jouz, Jerusalem
• Omar Bin Khatab Boys School – Sour Baher, Jerusalem

I) Development of school vision workshop

In March, 2008, the project was inaugurated by a general vision development workshop that involved all of the eight schools top management representatives (principles, vice principles, etc.) including representatives from the supervision department at the Jerusalem Directorate of Education, as well as the administrative and project support team from the Faisal Husseini Foundation (FHF) including project consultants. The workshop consisted of a 3-hour session every week for six consecutive weeks.

During this phase of school vision development, the following general subjects were introduced and discussed aiming at creating an initial understanding of the project and the language used as well as clarifying the process involved in the development of individual school visions for each one of the participating schools:

General philosophy of educational excellence General organizational assessment principles General educational leadership principles First stage S.W.O.T Analysis Dreams, values and vision: from the individual to the organizational process Individual, group and organizational power elements

A full package of background professional as well as theoretical materials was distributed to all participants. Additionally, a “first run” S.W.O.T analysis comparing current vs. expected educational and general school practices and performances.

was conducted. The SWOT consistednof 15 different categories with 25 different items. The categories included:

Participants were asked to rate each item including the sub-general items of teaching practices, general professional competence and general professional commitment on a scale of 1-5 where 1 indicates and 5 . Participants were also asked to rate each item twice; the first time according to current or actual status and the second time according to the expected status. The following results are based on 7 returns: 5 from school principals and 2 from the educational supervision team.

Generally, there was a significant difference in most items between current and expected status. The total raw score for actual/current status was 584 and for the expected status 807 points. The average score for current status (all items) was 3.33 and 4.61 for the expected status. The biggest differences were found in the following categories: Safety and discipline (average score: 3.2), parents involvement (average score: 2.4), learning readiness (average score: 2.57), student centred teaching practices (average score: 2.85), general professional commitment (average score: 3.1), stability (average score: 3.2), and innovative school practices (average score: 3).

This work will be expanded in the future through intensive individual work with each school and using the consultants’ findings to form a wide and solid basis for the project objectives and intervention plans

II) Renovation

The Faisal Husseini Foundation has finished its renovation and maintenance work in five schools during the summer of 2008: St. Dimitri School, St. Tarkmanchatz Armenian School, Dar Al-Awlad School, Doha School and Nahda “B” school. Students played a very important role in the needs assessment process and the choice of colours for the paintings. The main aim of involving the students with the renovation decisions was to make the school environment amiable, safe and child friendly.

The renovation Included:

Installing new electricity wires in St. Dimitri School and upgrading from one phase to three phases. Installing a false ceiling to control the class acoustics. Renovating the toilets, fixing the classroom doors and windows, and painting the school.

The Foundation’s work in St. Tarkmanchatz Armenian School included redesigning of the ground floor to fit a library, a computer laboratory, a science laboratory, arts room and an extracurricular activity room, in addition to renewing and fixing the classroom doors and windows, and painting the school.

In Dar Al Awlad School the Foundation has renovated the bathrooms and fixed the leaking ceilings .The Foundation has also painted the school ,installed new water fountains ,and fixed the central heating boiler. At Al Doha school the Foundation has fixed the stairs at the school entrance, and also set up the school garden and made it safer for the children to play in. the Foundation has painted the school and renovated the bathrooms and the water fountains. At Al Nahda “B” teachers did not have a lounge or a teachers’ room so they spent their breaks standing in corridors. The Foundation has solved their problems by redesigning the school to fit a small room for teachers’ usage. The Foundation has also upgraded the electricity from one phase to three phases. The Foundation has also renovated the bathrooms and installed safety fencing around the school.

III) Provision of Facilities and Programs

The Foundation has provided the eight schools participating in the “comprehensive school upgrading program” with 60 computers, several projectors, printers, and faxes.

At the beginning of the school year 2008/2009 the Foundation has installed a special computer software program for the school administrations. In addition, the first stage of need assessment concerning teacher training has been completed. The Foundation has begun the two-year teacher training project which aims at transforming the educational process from one that is teacher centred to one that is student centred. Saturday School Program This project targeted 70 to 75 students from the fourth to ninth grades from several schools with poor to average scores. Funded by the Italian Cooperation/ Italian Grants, the project aimed at strengthening these students especially in mathematics and the English Language and it also offered a variety of extracurricular activities such as physical education, musical education and chess. It took place every Saturday from February until the end of March 2008 at Al-Fatah Al-Laji’a ‘A’ School in Jerusalem. The project was completed in March with successful results as students’ scores were generally raised.