The Palestinian Ministry of Education (MoE) has inherited an educational system beset with problems; it is clear that immense efforts will be required to overcome the challenges it faces. The Deputy Minister of Education, Dr. Na'eem Abu'l-Humus, with his long background in education and his previous position of General Secretary of the Council for Higher Education, brings a promising wealth of experience and knowledge to the new authority. One month after the transfer of authority, the Educational Network spoke to him at the MoE in Ramallah about challenges and strategies.
Ednet: What are the challenges faced in the field of education?
Na'eem Abu'l-Humus (NAH): The challenges ahead of us are enormous. As we are still in the initial stages of our work we deal with problems according to urgency. In the first month, for example, we worked on the critical problem of overcrowded classes. However, the most pressing and comprehensive challenge is the present situation in the schools; both administratively -- that is school buildings, facilities and equipment -- and technically -- i.e., teacher training, qualifications and abilities. We aim to improve, develop and build schools subject to capacity and funding. We have just signed an agreement with UNESCO for the renovation of 15 schools which will be as good as new when we finish with them. There is also an agreement with the UNDP for schools in Jericho and a shared project to be implemented in cooperation with UNRWA. We will try to provide the educational field with the best we have to offer during the months until the elections. The most important challenge within the Ministry is to set up the administrative and technical structures for drafting appropriate planning.
Ednet: Do you have to apply the laws as they are? Are you reviewing or changing any of the existing laws?
NAH: According to international customary practice the laws in an Occupied country remain in force; in our case that means the laws from before 1967. We work with those laws that we see as important, and those we do not consider important we leave to the side: the Ministry is not a military administration. Laws and regulations are part of a larger system, namely: the state, and thus the legislation that eventually comes from the state will be the basis for the laws and regulations of each individual ministry. As these laws cannot be written in two days we are preparing the field in order to apply them in the near future.
Ednet: The Transfer Agreement mentions that the main offices of the spheres should be in Gaza or in Jericho, so why is there a Ministry of Education in Ramallah?
NAH: The agreement states that the main offices should be in those areas where there has been an Israeli army withdrawal. That does not mean that we cannot have supporting branch offices in the West Bank and thus our technical presence (branch of the Ministry in Ramallah, Ednet) is nothing unusual. Besides the Ramallah branch we also established a Directorate of Education in Gaza and an Office of Education in Jericho.
Ednet: What are you doing for teachers dismissed for security reasons during the Occupation?
NAH: The issue of dismissed teachers is very much alive. Of course the Palestinian MoE will not continue previous policies in this respect. (The Ministry announced in local newspapers that all teachers dismissed during the Occupation could re-apply for their positions and many of those that applied were indeed appointed, Ednet). Sometimes we have to respond to popular demand, whether the time is suitable or not; in other cases we cannot respond due to other priorities.
Ednet: What is the structure of the budget of the Ministry of Education?
NAH: In the absence of Ministry offices and employees, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) prepared a very quick budget for the last four months of 1994. This budget focuses on running costs, and not on development, which involves millions of dollars, an amount not currently available to the PNA. Ministry expenses are based on this very modest budget. Whether this budget will be available or not is another question, but the PNA has agreed that, whatever difficulties may arise, teachers will continue to receive their salaries.
Ednet: What is being done about revenue collection? Have donor countries contributed for the intervening period, as was suggested in the Transfer Agreement?
NAH: Not all of the five spheres (education and culture, health, social welfare, tourism, direct taxation and VAT, Ednet) have been transferred to us yet. As the transfer of authority in education took place under the title of 'good will' we insisted on our right to spend part of the Palestinian tax and customs money collected by the Israelis on education. Thus it was agreed that the Israelis would pay teachers salaries for the month of September until the transfer of taxation will take place (which of course does not include dismissed teachers who have gone back to work). Once taxation is transferred to us we will take complete charge. We realize that the collected tax money may not be sufficient; we plan to contact the donor countries to pay the difference for a limited period until the Palestinian system can stand on its own two feet (as stipulated in the Transfer Agreement, Ednet). people tend to forget, however, that donor countries tend to finance only specific development projects; therefore the PNA will have to manage the running costs.
Ednet: In the agreement it says that the Palestinian authorities should keep order and report any large-scale events to the Israelis, and that the Israelis are ultimately responsible for security. Does this mean that schools can still be closed at random?
NAH: The early transfer of authority is a difficult and complicated matter of which the educational sector forms only one part. We hope that this interim period will not last more than five months, and accept the present situation in order to implement some of our objectives. Nevertheless there are still major problematic issues between us and the Occupation authorities. You are not only talking about two authorities in one area, but about a civil authority which has educational authorities only, and the Occupation authority, which is a military authority. This greatly complicates the issue. The Israelis, in all meetings, have insisted that they are responsible for security until the Palestinians have been given full authority, elections have been held and until the army has been withdrawn and re-deployed. Thus problems are bound to occur, but if they do we attempt to solve them. The obvious current disagreement regards the recent school closures (the Israeli authorities closed three schools at the beginning of the school year for the reasons of 'security,' Ednet). We strongly believe that they have no right whatsoever to close schools; whereas they say that they do as it concerns a security matter. We have not reached an agreement during the past few days, but we did agree on a moderation measure, namely that they will inform us about any problems in the schools so that the PNA has a chance to solve them. However, our position remains unchanged: We are against the closure of schools.
Ednet: The agreement mentions that Jerusalem is not part of the transfer. What does this mean for schools in Jerusalem, in particular government schools?
NAH: The Oslo agreement excludes Jerusalem for the time being. Despite this postponement in the negotiations the Ministry considers it of great importance to pursue all technical aspects in the Jerusalem schools and to assist them with our West Bank directives, especially regarding development. Palestinian institutions in the city cannot be ignored. Jerusalem students are Palestinian, and they want to sit for the Tawjihi exam. We will try to achieve this for them.
Ednet: Education will be compulsory for the first ten years -- how will you enforce this?
NAH: I do not expect ten years of compulsory education to cause major problems, even though there is a difference between Gaza and the West Bank in this respect. For Palestinian people schooling is as natural as eating and drinking. Of course compulsory education should not be discussed as if it were a military issue, to be enforced; we have to find technical solutions, intelligent ways of dealing with people: the provision of a school in a particular area, for example, will encourage people to send their children to school.
Ednet: What will be your relations with local non-governmental organizations (NGO's)?
NAH: We welcome anything that benefits the educational process, and we are ready to cooperate as long as it does not oppose the laws and regulations and the official objectives of the Ministry. The Ministry has technical-administrative directives which give us the right to issue permits to such organizations and which govern mutual relations.
Ednet: Can you tell us what is being done on the drafting of a Palestinian curriculum?
NAH: Discussing curricula is easy, but the process of drafting and implementation, and in particular the scenario of unifying the West Bank and Gaza Strip, is a very large and complicated task indeed. We have some short-term and some long-term objectives. Our short-term objective is to unify the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the word "unification" here means improvement. The educational system of the West Bank is completely different from that of Gaza. We currently work in two lines, taking each available opportunity for a merging process and for a gradual unification of the two areas that does not cause upheaval in the system. So far, decisions have been made on unification of the student fees and on the unification of the educational stages, for example.
In time we will be able to unify curricula and systems. We will work on the basis of a long-term plan. Everyone knows that education is a 'heavy-machine,' that it takes years and years to develop. Jordan, for example, is implementing a ten-year plan, and at present you won't notice a large difference compared to five years ago; but there is a difference. The main things is that there should be a clear purpose in the process of improvement and that is present in the MoE. Of course everyone hopes that education will be as good as in countries such as the United States, with everything included, such as school buses, but you have to be realistic and say; is it possible here? However, this does not mean that we will stop the process of development: despite all the problems we face we will not let a single opportunity to improve and strengthen education pass.
Elaine Clark
Educational Network, POB 66, Ramallah, West Bank
tel: 02 995 6230/fax: 02 995 6231 e-mail: eclark@ednet.birzeit.edu