General Union of Palestinian Women

The National Strategy for the Advancement of Palestinian Women

Education:

Existing Problems:
Israeli occupation gravely affected Palestinian education, especially the continuous closure of schools and universities. Furthermore, the decline in the economic situation, the high rate of unemployment and the low standard of living led to a high percentage of student drop-outs, for work or marriage reasons. Moreover, the lack of teacher training programs to improve the quality of education and teaching techniques and the multiplicity of teaching curricula in Palestine have all led to a marked decline in the level of education. Women's vocational training remained restricted and traditional due to non existing programs for innovating teaching methods and developing curricula. When Palestinians assumed authority over education they were confronted with severe problems in the system incurred by the occupation. Therefore, the Palestinian authority's main strategic priority for development and progress centered on revitalizing the system of education and allocating funds necessary to elevate its standard.
It should set a special mechanism suitable to deal with education problems in Jerusalem for the coming phase and confront occupation polices aimed at controlling the education sector in Arab Jerusalem in a methodical and systematic way.

Objectives:

1. To identify obstacles facing women's education and to take the necessary measures that would guarantee equal opportunities in education, training and employment at all stages and not to place obstacles before co-education.
2. To lower the percentage of illiteracy and work towards abolishing it completely.
3. To unify and develop an educational curriculum that embodies the concepts of democracy, equality, human rights and civil service over and above daily life skills and occupational, environmental and technical awareness.
4. To put an end to student drop outs, especially among girls, in order to eliminate the source of illiteracy.
5. To establish new educational departments, currently unavailable for women, in the various fields of technology, vocations and science.
6. To increase the percentage of women in decision making positions within the system of education.
7. To generalize education to cover remote areas especially within bedouin camps, and to impose compulsory education at the primary level for girls and boys living in remote areas.

Procedures:

1. Earmarking sufficient funds for educational reforms and monitoring their implementation.
2. To reinvigorate the Higher Council for Literacy and to direct special attention towards the education of illiterate women (15-45 years old), as they constitute part of the labour force, and to provide curricula and statistics for literacy campaigns.
3. To rewrite text books for all levels, free of stereotypes and based on the principles of equality and human rights that project women's effective role in society.
4. To include educational programs within the general information media programs that raise the social awareness of the necessity and importance of providing children with equal education and that raise the family's awareness that their sons and daughters
are equal.
5. To ensure informal education for rural and bedouin women in cooperation with ministries and volunteer organizations that are active in this field.
6. To make special arrangements to ensure a higher percentage of women in decision making posts in the fields of training, promotion and scholarships.
7. To counteract the phenomenon of student drop-outs specifically at the primary level.
8. To ensure the presence of follow-up centers in villages to protect the right of girls/women in education.

C: The Child/girl:

Objectives:

1. To set specific policies for early childhood that comply with the International Convention of the Rights of the Child, signed by the PLO in 1995.
2. To put an end to discrimination against the girl/child within the family and society in various aspects of life.
3. To set social educational programs for parents that accentuate joint family responsibilities.
4. To end girl drop outs from school at the primary and preparatory levels for early marriage reasons.
5. To set development programs for rural and remote areas with the girl/child as their ain concern, that deal with societal education, health awareness and sports
activities.
6. To provide healthy physical and psychological growth requirements and to enable girls to be aware of their health and physical growth needs.

Procedures:

1. To urge ministries, institutions and private organizations to specify programs and plans that are concerned with early childhood.
2. To allow the girl/child to fully participate in all social programs and activities on equal basis with the boy/child.
3. To include within the school curricula and the various information media, a special subject on social education with the aim of popularizing gender equality culture.
4. To endorse a law for compulsory education for the primary level and to urge the Legislative Council's Legal Committee to raise the minimal age of marriage for girls and to conduct awareness campaigns on the harmful effects and disadvantages of
early marriage.
5. To set preparatory and training programs for teachers and instructors that encompass awareness of the importance of giving special consideration to each sex
without discrimination against the girl/child and depriving her of participating in pacific activities or of acquiring various skills that deal with wrong social concepts.
6. To provide financial resources to expand the network of nurseries, kinder gartens, elementary schools, mother and child centers and mobile clinics to cover villages and
refugee camps.
7. To consider the upper kindergarten level (age 5-6) as compulsory in schools, both governmental and private.
8. To involve girls in all societal educational programs and sports activities at youth centers.
9. To provide nurseries in all government institutions for the babies of mothers employed there.
10. To translate the agreement on 'The Rights of the Child' into work programs and mechanisms that help develop the child's capabilities in the various stages of childhood and to give special attention to gifted children.