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Almawrid Teacher Development Center initiated the project “Education for Citizenship” to develop awareness and understanding among Palestinian youth within the school system about their role as citizens in their communities and provide them with opportunities to carry on responsible and active steps towards assuming such roles. The Palestinian Ministry of Education includes in its system a required subject in the school curriculum taught in the 10th grade, called ‘citizenship’. At present, the teaching of this subject is like any other subject in the school system. The ‘Education for Citizenship’ project aims at providing an alternative way to teaching this subject in the schools through using a variety of participative methods and providing meaningful field-related experiences.

The Need for the Project

Since August 1994, the Palestinian National Authority took over the responsibility for the education system from the Israeli Government, and the Palestinian Ministry of Education was established. Since then the Ministry of Education (MOE) had to deal with a system that had many problems and needed a great deal of improvements. Some of the problems had to do with the unification of the existing West and Gaza Strip separate curricula into a new Palestinian Curriculum, the building of schools and improvement of existing facilities and the hiring and training of teachers, principals and other education staff. In addition, the MOE had to meet the growing yearly demands on the system to increase school facilities, to hire, train and monitor an increased number of educational staff to meet the basic needs of schoolchildren.

These pressures did not deter the MOE from looking into the future and planning for nation building. In its five-year plan 2000-2005, the MOE has identified the following vision to guide its future activities (Ministry of Education, Palestine, 2000):

1. Education as a human right. All children between 6 and 16 years of age have the right to receive free basic education, regardless of their beliefs, social economic status and gender. All children have equal rights to access educational facilities.
2. Education as the basis for citizenship. Together with the family and the community, the school will be a main instrument for forming Palestinian citizens. Through a unified Palestinian education system and the new curriculum, children will be educated not only on their rights but also, and more importantly, on their civic responsibilities in a framework of freedom and social responsibility.
3. Education as a tool for social and economic development. The education system must meet the requirements of Palestinian society and must enable students to develop socially, economically and politically. Education will support progress and creativity, inculcating the desire and the ability for active participation in technological, scientific and cultural progress.
4. Education as the basis for values and democracy. Education will be the instrument for building democratic and well-informed society. The aim is to build a Palestinian society strong on values, ethics and high social principles. The education system must evolve into major social institution contributing to democracy and the transfer of cultural experiences. Efforts will be made to maintain a balance between the promotion of national values and openness to world cultures to be able to contribute effectively to the evolution of world civilization.
5. Education as a continuous, renewable and participatory process. Education is a life-long process that transcends the confines of the school. Basic education is to be provided through formal and non-formal methods. Education is a process continuously fuelled by numerous channels of communication, associations, community activities and the multiplicity of mass media. Achieving good quality education is the responsibility of the whole society and not the Ministry of Education alone.

• Employ education for social change, through introducing and implementing an effective model of teaching civic education to the Palestinian community, and introducing an “education for life use” approach.

• Build bridges between formal and informal education, as well as bridges between schools and the local community.

• Increase the ability of young people to be agents of change, through inviting Palestinian youth in their local communities to participate in decision making of issues related to their daily life, to raise their expectations from their local councils and to evaluate the performances of their local councils. Particularly, the objective will focus on issues related to children, women and youth’s rights and responsibilities of local councils and related to cultural, economical and environmental aspects. In addition, the objective will invite Palestinian youth to carry out their social responsibilities towards their local communities as active democratic citizens.

• Increase the ability of local families, women in particular, to express their views regarding their rights and needs concerning performances of their local council.
• Strengthen communication between the local council and local civic organizations and citizens to ensure protection of human rights, accountability and transparency.
• Clarify the role of the local council as a representative of citizens and not the authority.

The implementation of the project:

• Teachers Training Course:

  

  A training material was developed for teachers (40 hours), while the teachers prepared the teaching material for the students (3 months) under the guidance of Almawrid. These materials were prepared within the framework and vision of Almawrid for the project. The training material included the following topics: The concept of citizenship, citizen and country; acquaintance with own towns, their problems, participative methods of teaching and citizen-related concepts; concepts of authority and local governance, rights and duties, laws and role of the citizen. In addition, the training material included topics about the relation between the local councils, the Ministry of Local Government and the citizen, as well as planning for teaching the relationship between the student and the local councils.

  The participative methods used for training included case studies, role-playing, worksheets, reporting, brainstorming, teamwork, and problem solving. In addition, the training included a variety of participative methods to prepare teachers for teaching students the subject of citizenship.

• Students Activities:

  

  With respect to the teaching material, and as part of teacher training, the teachers worked together on developing a variety of activities for teaching students the subject of citizenship. Almawrid published these activities, “Classroom Activities for Education for Citizenship” as a teacher manual. The teaching material included the following topics in the form of activities: Know you town, towards a clear concept of citizenship, attacking public property, our town…our home, essential facilities in the town, the local council is for all, accountability, the streets of the old city, let us keep the town clean, and the appropriate person in the appropriate place. In addition, the teaching material included topics related to rotten foods, the rule of law, this does not happen in our town, and we will not stand with arms crossed.

• Convention of Rights and Duties of Citizens Agreed Upon by Project Students

  After each session (class activity), there was an attached list of rights and duties of citizens produced by students; these were the outcomes of whole classroom discussions and within group discussions. Almawrid then collected these rights and duties from all the participating schools and put them into one list as follows:

My Rights in my Town:

1. To know municipal laws and methods of implementing them
2. To have my privacy respected and my private property protected
3. To express opinions freely at home, in the school and in the community
4. To form societies
5. To have specialized counselors in the town to help:
   a. Care for young people and look after them in a carefully thought out and sound way b. Develop various youth’s hobbies c. Acquire various knowledge, experiences and skills

6. To be provided with education, and have future plans prepared to absorb those qualified and limit their immigration outside the country
7. To be provided with a climate conducive to studying, with respect to seats in schools and modern classrooms equipped with appropriate teaching aids
8. To be provided with free university education
9. To be provided with full services for those with special needs
10. To participate in cultural activities and in the presence of a library in town that is open to the community, particularly, for young people and children
11. To be provided with entertainment centers in town, such as, clubs, playgrounds, parks, etc. for all citizens, including children (of both sexes)
12. To enjoy freedom, security and equity within the town, and protection and safeguarding from the overstepping of citizens who violate security and order, and to collect unlicensed weapons
13. Equality and the spreading of equity between the members of society before the responsible parties, and apply punishment laws on those who violate them and trespass on public properties, as well as corrupted responsible officers
14. To be provided with health clinics
15. To live in a clean and sound environment that is free of diseases and pollution
16. To get a well-balanced nutrition that is free from diseases and pollution
17. To read expiry dates on food products, and check it before eating from it
18. Accountability and knowledge of the mechanism to monitor the responsible parties for the soundness of food, and activate the section on health control in the council
19. To know what is meant by rotten food and its causes, the extent of its dangers and crush this phenomenon, and receive awareness and counseling from the parties concerned
20. The presence of garbage containers and a car to collect the garbage
21. To have the garbage containers emptied periodically and covers put on top of them
22. To know public institutions in the town, with respect to its history, foundation and objectives
23. To have the municipality protect the heritage, and repair archeological and historic sites
24. To be provided with an adequate and sound network for healthy and clear water, and another network for electricity
25. To be provided with water and electricity continuously without stopping, and with prices within reach of everybody
26. To be provided with paved streets free of holes, and open and pave new streets
27. To have the traffic regulated and traffic signs put, and the laws applied on those who violate them
28. To have pavements that are free from obstructions provided, improved and widened, and have special garages available, so that no trespassing on pavements occurs
29. Question and monitor the local council within the framework of the law and public manners
30. To know the future plans for the town
31. To provide recommendations and suggestions that could serve the town
32. To know election objectives and campaigns of candidates, and that elections be carried out periodically with integrity within clear measures
33. To be informed about the way the election process is going to proceed and the election platform
34. To have observation committees monitor the behavior of the council and the implementation of its promises
35. Monitor what has been implemented of the platforms of the election parties who won the municipal council seats
36. To know the economic resources of the town, and the aspects of expenditures that the municipality spends on citizens
37. To have a grievance box
38. To have a committee for supervising public facilities periodically
39. To participate in the fight against the signs of corruption
40. To live in a community that rejects intermediaries, favoritism and briberies
41. To meet the needs of citizens from agricultural and industrial products

My Duties in my Town:

1. To participate in developing public projects in town, and offer support and assistance to the municipal council
2. To help the needy groups in the town through activating social solidarity programs
3. To participate in awareness campaigns for the citizens and call on them to commit themselves to their duties and pay financial dues to the municipality and the various departments, so that it can continue offering the required services from it
4. To invite the people, particularly those who are well to do, to contribute towards establishing recreational places
5. To organize awareness campaigns to contribute towards solving the problems of unemployment and immigration
6. To notify about violations and about the places that sell rotten foods, and raise the awareness of citizens regarding their harm and the importance of reading expiry dates
7. To spread the awareness among the citizens to maintain cleanliness, and prevent children from playing with the garbage containers
8. To protect the safety of streets and their cleanliness, and to never throw garbage on street pavements, or near garbage containers
9. To participate in the supervision of public facilities and their cleanliness, the properties of citizens and their protection, and the forming of special committees to monitor the cleanliness of schools, and raising the awareness of students and drawing their attention to the danger of playing in the streets
10. To present the protests and objections to the local council in thought out and organized way
11. To fight intermediaries to reach the council
12. To observe, object and protest to the responsible authority in order to consider the application of the law on everybody, and call on the local council to deal with the citizens with integrity, equity and equality
13. To have a feeling of belongingness and responsibility towards the town
14. To spread awareness among people regarding the importance of accountability
15. To respect the opinion of others
16. To accept the results of local council elections, and deal with neutrality with any person sorted as a result of counting votes
17. To contribute towards objective observation of elections and to participate in eliminating all kinds of fanaticism
18. To call for the selection of the right person for the right position, with responsibility and honesty, and open the way before the one who is able to give more, and encourage his election
19. To follow-up on the work of the local council, and remind him of his election platform that he announced during the election
20. To protect national identity, the heritage of the town and its history
21. To be committed towards laws, public manners and legislations, and to carry the responsibility towards helping its implementation with integrity
22. To cooperate with the local council, and to participate in the awareness campaigns to rationalize consumption
23. To cooperate with the local council, and to participate in the awareness campaigns regarding the dangers of using weapons in public places and occasions
24. To cooperate with the local council, and to participate in the awareness campaigns regarding the importance of activating the role of students in implementing the program “caution on the road”
25. To call police stations quickly in case a problem arises
26. To be committed to traffic laws on roads and streets to avoid road accidents
27. To respect the rule of law principle, and support the application of punishment on those who violate it
28. To never yield to oppression, and to go to the responsible parties to realize what is right
29. To protect archeological sites and shrines
30. To be tolerant with others, and help in solving problems and amending disagreements
31. To never trespass on the rights of others
32. To work towards pushing local and popular institutions to eliminate bribery and favoritism
33. To spread awareness among the people regarding the rights of young girls to participate in recreational activities along with the maintenance of customs and traditions
34. To clarify the negative impacts that result from the absence of sound criteria in employing staff
35. To encourage peers to enroll in clubs and youth societies, and activate public institutions in the town
36. To spread awareness regarding dealing with the municipal council
37. To spread awareness regarding causes of pollution among professionals

Public Meetings:

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The objective of the public forums is to provide students on hand experiences of the issues in their local community as expressed by those concerned: the citizens, the local council and the students. Through organizing such public meetings, Almawrid has provided a channel for citizens, local council members and students to be vocal of their local problems and be expressive of their point of views. Each party listened to the other party’s arguments and explanations, a fact that can lead to a better understanding of the other.

Almawrid implemented fourteen planned open forums. Students, teachers, representatives of organizations in the local community and municipal council members participated in the open forums. The main theme was, “local council”, current performance, expectations, responsibilities, citizens’ needs, desired characteristics and programs of the future municipal council. In addition, discussions of citizens’ role and responsibilities towards their town and their local council have taken place.

The Final Workshop:

The 3 days final workshop took place in Ramallah during the period 31/7/2005 to 2/8/2005. All the 15 teachers were present in the final workshop along with two students from each school selected by the participating teachers. According to the workshop program, the first day included, after the introductory activities and brainstorming session, individual work and then group work where the participating students chose the 10 most important rights and 10 most important duties of citizens. Almawrid has previously categorized the rights and duties into health, economic, cultural …rights and duties. A lawyer followed-up on students’ work and helped in formulating the rights and duties in legal terms. Groups presented and discussed the outcome of their work and came out with two lists representing rights and duties. The second day of the workshop focused on the preparation of murals.

Students worked individually and in groups in producing posters, related to rights and duties of citizens, and then hanged them on the walls of the hall. Two artists followed-up on the work of students as they were drawing and coloring their perceptions of rights and duties on posters. The third day was a wrap up session in the morning were groups worked on final thoughts about the Education for Citizenship project that included a discussion about outcomes and whether they are going to pursue what they learnt in the future. In addition, a teacher from an international youth organization presented some examples of local councils in the world, a discussion followed. Meetings with teachers and the various groups of students for the impact assessment of the project took place during the rest of the day.

Publications:

Besides the training and teaching manuals, Almawrid produced another two publication, first a booklet entitled “Our Local Council”, and a poster with the same title. These two publications were descriptions and a documentation of all what happened throughout the project.

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