Recent international conferences have discussed the future education and welfare of children on a global level. The Jomtien (Thailand) Conference in 1990, entitled Education for All; the World Summit for Children held in New York in 1990; and the Summit for Arab Children held in Tunis in 1992 - all of these contributed towards the outlining of certain universal goals concerning children. In the light of these initiatives, the PNA asked the Swedish government to coordinate a general plan addressing the needs of Palestinian children
In early 1994, the Swedish team mobilized the help of UNICEF and the Palestinian Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation. The idea of a National Plan of Action (NPA) was conceived. In line with the goals of these previous conferences, the NPA aims to encapsulate a strategy for dealing with children's' affairs in all areas of life -- education, health, social and mental well-being, and so on. The Ministry of Planning has taken responsibility for the overseeing of the project. The complete text of the plan is now ready, representing its first phase up to the year 2,000.
Dr. Amin Beidoun of the Ministry of Planning explained to the Educational Network that work on the preparation of this ambitious plan was begun at the beginning of 1995. The Ministry formed a Steering Committee composed of UNICEF, the Bureau of Statistics and the Ministries of Education, Health and Culture. It was soon realized that a vital component of the plan would be the contribution of the NGO sector. They were invited to participate, and throughout have been represented by the Coordinating Committee of Palestinian Educational NGO's.
Dr. Beidoun stressed that this helped to give to the NPA a specifically Palestinian imprint. 'We didn't want to import ideas,' he said. 'We wanted to use our own resources, our own brains.' This wish was fully realized in the convening of a Symposium on Palestinian Children held in Gaza in April 1995, and intended to give impetus to the preparation of the plan by letting the children contribute directly. One of the most striking components of the Symposium was that, through a workshop, children were invited to outline their own ideas about how they felt their future, in all its ramifications, should be planned and managed. Dr. Beidoun told us that he was very moved by the fervor and commitment of the children's contribution. Setting this in the context of recent history, of the neglect and degradation of schools and hospitals by the occupying Israelis, he exclaimed: 'To use human beings, children, as pawns was too much. We have to look forward now, and rebuild the generation born around the mid 1980's.'
The children's statement was read out to the participants at the symposium by a child who had himself taken part in the workshop. In the field of education it called for attention to be paid to the fabric of schools, particularly the adequate provision of water and toilet facilities; and the provision -- in many cases for the first time -- of laboratories, libraries, visual aids and sports equipment. The children felt that simply by building new schools, two great disadvantages to the present system would be eradicated -- those of overcrowded classrooms, and the wasteful two-shift system. The curriculum needed to be streamlined so that it could be more effectively absorbed, and corporal punishment should be prohibited.
One of the most striking proposals to come from the children is that remedial sessions for pupils with various learning difficulties should be held during the summer holidays, and that not only teachers but above-average pupils should be enlisted to facilitate these sessions. This is a vital area for the future well-being of Palestinian education, and a subject which we have drawn attention to in the past (see Educational Network Newsletter No.10, p.4). The aim of the children involved in the workshop is that childhood illiteracy should be eliminated by the year 2,000.
The wording of the children's proposals for dealing with disabilities was not, however, so progressive, in that it spoke about the provision of 'appropriate institutions' and 'regular campaigns to collect donations'. (This puts into focus the importance of the calls, implicit throughout the bulk of the articles in this issue of the Newsletter, for greater education towards the acceptance of disability and its integration into the mainstream both of the education process and of society as a whole).
If the advent of the Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is regarded as tantamount to the creation of a new state, the elaboration of a National Plan of Action for children embodies a fundamental inevitability. The bricks and mortar of these foundations are now in place. The children will see to it how the rooms are decorated.
Elaine Clark
Educational Network, POB 66, Ramallah, West Bank
tel: 02 995 6230/fax: 02 995 6231 e-mail: eclark@ednet.birzeit.edu