From: Center for Policy Research <cpr>
Subject: Help Palestinian education


HOW TO HELP PALESTINIAN EDUCATION

(From 'Educational Network', No. 11, April 1993,
publ. by Ramallah Friends Schools, P.O.Box 66, 
Ramallah, West Bank, via Israel
Tel. 972-2-956230,  Fax. 972-2-956231)

Many of our readers have written to us asking how 
individuals and organizations can help Palestinian 
education. We have compiled a list of suggestions to guide 
you. If you are interested in pursuing one or more of 
these suggested activities, the Educational Network can 
aid you by /coordinating/ the initial contacts, /following 
up/, and /providing any other support/ you may need.

1.  Link your teachers' union with a teachers' union here 
--- linkage should be based on a shared pedagogical 
enterprise.

2. Get your union to actively support the right of 
Palestinian teachers in the Occupied Territories to form 
unions:

a. through the International Labor Organization (if your 
union is a member)
b. contacting other international unions which have 
supported our right to form a union -- we can supply 
names and addresses.

3. Establish a SCHOLARSHIP FUND for one or more 
Palestinian students to study at a Palestinian university 
or school -- or establish a scholarship fund for a 
Palestinian student or teacher to study at a university 
abroad.

4. Reproduce and publish information about Palestinian 
education:

    a. for your union membership;
    b. for the outside community.

The Educational Network can supply up-to-date 
information and statistics.

5. Send delegations of teachers to visit the Occupied 
Territories during periods when our schools are in 
session.

The Network can arrange an itinerary, make hotel and 
local travel arrangements, and provide a guide for the 
visit.

6. Sponsor Palestinian teachers to visit your city for an 
educational tour:

      a. to see schools and speak with educators in order to
          learn about progressive pedagogical ideas and
           experiences;

      b. to speak about the conditions of Palestinian
          education.

The Network will coordinate from Palestine.

7. Establish teacher-exchange programs for one year in 
which a Palestinian teacher from a private school teaches 
at a public or private school abroad while a teacher from 
that school spends a year in a Palestinian private school.

8. Send an experienced educator to the Occupied 
Territories to give workshops (all-day workshops or two-
day workshops) on innovative teaching techniques.

The Network will pay for the person's food, lodging, and 
travel while in Palestine, and will serve as guide.

9. Set up a pen-pal program with a Palestinian school in 
either English or French.

10. Set up a sister-school program with a Palestinian 
school which would actively involve teachers as well as 
students at both schools -- a great tool for building 
international understanding and mutual sensitivity.

11. Keep the Educational Network informed about 
important educational conferences so that we can send a 
Palestinian teacher to attend.

12. Send to the Educational Network articles or other 
writings or books dealing with innovative approaches and 
ideas in the field of education so that we can then 
disseminate the information locally.