Bantustanization and Decentralization - my notes
Dear Colleagues,
I guess that if you are a senior official in a ministry of education and want to sound à la mode in educational management, then you have to say that you believe in and, preferably, work for decentralization. For a person like me, the fund-raiser at the Ministry, it was always a delight to listen to my boss, the Deputy Minister, talk to donors about our Ministry's efforts to move towards decentralization in managing education . He did not talk about the subject to please donors. He, and senior Ministry officials, believed in it. In fact, it is one of the major activities in our Ministry's Five-Year Educational Development Plan for the period 2001-2005. We finished the final draft of the Plan just before Al Aqsa Intifada started. Almost all programs and activities envisaged in the Plan, however, are put on hold at the moment, waiting for donors to fund them and for the present situation to ease up and to allow for their implementation. Decentralization, however, did not wait for money. It went ahead at supersonic speed because, ironically, the situation did not ease up but, rather, worsened.
In response to the closures and siege imposed by the Israeli army on Palestinian cities, towns, villages and refugee camps, the Ministry of Education put together an emergency plan to make it possible for schooling to go on. In short, the emergency plan divides each of the 16 educational administrative districts in the West Bank and Gaza into smaller geographical units. A unit is defined based on the roads and availability of public transportation lines or ease and safety of walking between population centers in each unit. The District Education Office assigns a coordinator for each unit from the school principals, supervisors or district staff living in that area. Whenever closure or siege is imposed on that area for more a long period of time, the teachers who cannot reach their normal schools, report to the nearest school to their area of residence. They teach there and replace the missing teachers. Pupils do the same. They go to the nearest schools and are helped by teachers in that school in their studies. Volunteers from the local community in that area are called upon to fill the shortage in teachers whenever it occurs.
Qalqilya is one of the 16 educational administrative districts. The city of Qalqilya has a population of 32,000. It has 9 government schools, 7 private schools and 3 private schools. Outside the city of Qalqilya, the district consists of 28 villages with 46 government schools. Total number of pupils in government schools is 20,824. The Israeli army closed the major roads in the district and strictly besieged the city since 8th November. Even dirt, side, roads leading to the city are closed. This literally turned a number of geographical areas in the district into Bantustans.
The Director of Education in the district of Qalqilya, Mr. Mohammad Alya, normally commutes to his office in the city from a village (Irtah) in another district (Tulkarm). Although he tries every day, he has not been able to reach his office since 8th November. He wisely decided to implement the emergency plan which he has drawn. He and his staff divided the District into 8 units, each with its own coordinator. The coordinators redistributed teachers and located and assigned volunteers. Had they not done this, 162 teachers would have been sitting at home every day because they could not reach their normal schools. Many pupils would have faced a similar fate. Now, attendance of pupils is full. Around 99% of the teachers are working in their normal schools or in alternative locations.
Three of the employees of the central Ministry of Education in Ramallah and a number of those from the Qalqilya District Office are teaching in schools. Some of you may know one of these employees: Mr. Amjad Masri. He is a computer engineer who works in the Instructional Media Department at our Ministry. He is in charge of World-Bank-sponsored project to link schools to the Internet (I*Earn). He is presently teaching computer studies in one of the schools in Qalqilya city (Madrasat Al-Salam - School of Peace, in English).
Volunteers from the local communities are of great help. Some of them are newly-graduated university or high school students, presently unemployed. Some are employees in other Ministries or institutions or university lecturers or students who cannot report to their normal work or studies. Some are retired teachers. Others are housewives. One of the latter, teaches in the school village ('Atmeh). While she is giving science lessons to pupils, her baby sleeps in the administration room!
I will not write to you in today's notes about the immense difficulties that some of these teachers have to go through while on their way to their daily work stations. I will not relate some of the instances of humiliation at Israeli army roadblocks, especially near the Israeli settlement of Alfei Menashe, which the Director of Education narrated to me over the phone yesterday.
Since he cannot reach his office, where does Mr. Alya go every day and what does he do, you may ask. Well, he uses the time to do something he likes very much: visit schools in villages he can reach. He also teaches some classes, sometimes whenever there is an emergent need. The eight units are functioning relatively very well without his direct intervention. He just receives reports from the coordinators; gives guidance, feedback and directions; handles emergencies; encourages people in schools and raises their moral. He, even, has time to ask questions about and implement activities related to the quality of schooling provided in his district. He managed to reorganize a training course for schools principals on the integration of curricular materials in grades 1-4, so that it is held in two locations instead of one in order to accommodate the present difficulties.
The Bantustanization forced Mr. Alya to decentralize. It has forced him to become, not only a manager who delegates and empowers his employees, but also a potential educational leader. And he is only one example, out of many strongly determined educators and administrators I could report about so far.
Khalil Mahshi
Director General
International and Public Relations
Ministry of Education
Ramallah, West Bank
Palestine