Ref: 89/2012

On Tuesday, 23 October 2012, the Economic
and Social Rights Unit of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights
(PCHR) organized a workshop titled ‘The Reality of Elementary
Education in the Gaza Strip’, which took place in Al-Quds International Hotel
in Gaza City. The workshop was attended
by a number of specialized persons representing the Education Department in
UNRWA, the private education sector and a number of education institutions in
the Gaza Strip.

The Director of the Economic and Social
Rights Unit, Mr Khalil Shaheen, opened the workshop by welcoming the
continued coordination and cooperation between PCHR and education institutions
in the Gaza Strip.  The workshop aimed to
discuss the current status of elementary education in the Gaza Strip in terms
of quality, and outline the requirements for developing the education sector.
The participants also discussed the impact of the illegal Israeli closure of
the Gaza strip on the development of elementary education and the ability of educational
institutions to meet their needs. Mr Shaheen underlined the important principle
that education is the right of every person, and that international human
rights standards provide for mandatory free education at least in the mandatory
and fundamental stages.

Mr Azzam Sha’ath, a researcher for the
Economic and Social Rights Unit, gave a presentation titled ‘The Right to
Education in International Instruments and Palestinian Legislation’, in which
he outlined the most notable articles on the right to education in
international instruments, particularly Article 26 in the Universal Declaration
on Human Rights and Articles 13 and 14 of the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.  He
also addressed the right to education in Palestinian legislation, particularly as
provided for in the Palestinian Basic Law, which was amended in 2003.

In his presentation titled ‘The Reality of
Education in UNRWA’, Dr Mahmoud Hemdyat, director of the Education Department
in UNRWA, explained that UNRWA’s mission is to provide quality education
according to the needs of the students and their abilities.  He praised the adoption of the Palestinian
curriculum in 2000, which established a consistent curriculum in schools
throughout the Gaza Strip.  Mr Hemdyat
also addressed the difficulties, mainly economic, which the Education
Department in UNRWA is facing; the education budget is fixed although the
annual enrollment of students in the first grade has increased to 30,000.  He also pointed out that more than 91% of
schools work on two shifts.  He outlined
how UNRWA will seek to reduce the number of schools working on two shifts by
building 203 schools by the school year 2014/2015.

Mohammed Hamed al-Jedi, former Director
General of Public Education in the Gaza Strip, discussed the stages which the
elementary education sector has gone through in the Gaza Strip since the Israeli
occupation began.  He noted the important
role of parents in promoting elementary education.  Al-Jedi called upon the Ministry of Education
to use advanced educational methods, extracurricular education, and improved
dialogue between the student and teacher. 
Al-Jedi also called for increased coordination between the governmental
education sector and the private education sector in a way that serves the
interest of students and society.

In his presentation titled ‘Between Education
and National Security’, Mohammed Shahin, an education expert, noted that
developed countries have a strong interest in promoting education and that
education occupies a special place in state spending.

Following the presentations, the audience participated in an open
discussion during which they asked a number of questions.  The participants in the
workshop made several recommendations, notably:

· Calling for concerted efforts between all interested
parties to promote education with the aim of improving the quality of the
learning environment and achieving concrete results;

· Emphasizing that the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip,
including the ban on the entry of construction materials needed for the
reconstruction schools, is a systematic Israeli policy that negatively impacts
the realization of the right to education and should be stopped immediately;

· Calling upon the international community to take effective
action in order to bring an end to the closure of the Gaza Strip and open all
the border crossings;

· Calling upon the Ministry of Education to build a clear
strategy for training and building capacity of teachers and employees in the
elementary education sector; and

Promoting the right to elementary education by
providing adequate the financial budget to develop the elementary education
sector, including building and equipping schools with all the necessary requirements.