School Curricula: Investing in Human Capital or Wasting it

Note: Research publish in Arabic

Link to the research paper:  School Curricula: Investing in Human Capital or Wasting it

The Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung- Regional Office in Palestine and Jordan – published a research paper in Arabic entitled “School Curricula: Investing in Human Capital or Wasting it!” authored by the Palestinian researcher Muhannad Abdul-Hamid.  The research paper examines the Palestinian school curriculum in terms of philosophy and education methods and investigates into all content of the curriculum and school textbooks related to the shaping of  the national and civic identity in the consciousness and mindsets of the Palestinian students.

Abdul-Hamid, the research paper author, pointed out that he had chosen this subject for various reasons, among them is the fact that 40% of the primary grades students are not good at writing and reading, in addition to students’ poor knowledge and general culture and their weak research capacity in the absence of thinking skills as well as other reasons pressing for the publishing of this research paper.

The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, in collaboration with Abdul-Hamid, extends an open invitation to civil society activists and to social and political movements to seriously consider the reality of education and to systematically pressure decision-makers to modernize the curriculum and work to develop it to become more tolerant to diversity, pluralism, democracy and equality and to denounce all forms of discrimination and exclusion.

For her part, Salam Hamdan, the manager of the Rosa Luxemburg “Emancipatory Education Programme”, said that this research is at the heart of the programme, which aims at developing education in Palestine. She added that “instead of relying on readymade answers and inevitabilities that restrict thinking and reduce perceptions, the Emancipatory Education Programme aims at disseminating and promoting a culture of asking questions,  knowledge curiosity and scientific critical and analytical research.  In this context, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation cooperates with Palestinian institutions, teachers and artists who use diverse tools and ideas to activate critical thinking and to engage people from different groups in the development of a progressive and democratic Palestinian society.

The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation will seek to organize 10 meetings with concerned institutions, universities, civil society activists, teachers, students, parents and actors who have influence over the Palestinian curriculum to discuss the topics and complexities addressed by the research paper in the different West Bank cities.  Hard copies of the research paper are available at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Ramallah and the research paper can be electronically accessed on the Foundation’s website.

The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation has been supporting its partners in Palestine since 2000. It has established a regional office in Palestine in 2008 and in 2014 the Foundation developed a work programme in Jordan. The work of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Regional Office in Palestine is based on the understanding that there is a need to struggle in order to overcome racist, sexist, colonial and imperial forms of power. Therefore, the Foundation’s office cooperates with progressive Palestinian individuals and organizations to support the Palestinian people to achieve values of freedom necessary to enable them to exercise their right to self-determination.