Arabs and Palestinians in Israeli Textbooks 2022‒23
This IMPACT-se report offers an insight into major themes relating to Arabs and Palestinians in government-approved, Hebrew-language Israeli school textbooks covering civics, geography, Hebrew studies, history, homeland, society and civics, Israel studies, Jewish thought, and Jewish-Israeli culture. The research explores how specific lessons, images and exercises portray and shape attitudes toward Palestinians and Arabs from various backgrounds within Israeli society and the greater region. It evaluates the presentation of the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, the peace process, and Arab and Palestinian Other—living either as citizens of Israel, in Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and elsewhere. This analysis looks at 107 textbooks taught at state and state-religious schools approved by the Israeli Ministry of Education for the 2022–23 academic year.
India to Combat Youth Voter Apathy Through School Textbooks
/in Blog, Frontpage /by The Hindu Bureau— The HinduIndia’s National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has announced it will introduce new textbooks which include content on electoral literary, and will update existing textbooks to incorporate this material. The goal is to address voter apathy among young people, and Indians living in urban areas. These measures, which will begin in years 6–12 […]
Russia’s Latest Effort to Sway Young Minds: High-School Textbooks Praising the Conflict in Ukraine
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Ivana Kottasová and Uliana Pavlova - CNNThe country’s Ministry of Education this week unveiled new history textbooks with sections about what it calls the “special military operation” in Ukraine, the annexation of Crimea and Western sanctions. Critics say the move is a part of a sustained effort to indoctrinate school children and stifle any independent thinking. The new textbooks endorse this […]
‘Frightening Antisemitic Abuse is on the Rise in Australian Schools’
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Dr. Dvir Abramovich - news.com.auThe recent gut-wrenching story of the Jewish student at a Launceston school subjected to antisemitic and Nazi abuse is just the tip of the iceberg. For Jewish students, public schools in Australia are not what you would imagine. Antisemitic bullying is alive and well, and these terrible forces are gaining traction. The frightening reality is […]
‘Will I Be Illiterate’? In Taliban’s Afghanistan, Girls Fight Back—Attend Secret Classes, Refuse to Disappear
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Nirupama Subramanian -- The Indian ExpressThe underground school in suburban Kabul began in July this year, one of 50 set up by women’s rights activists, months after the Taliban regime in Afghanistan disallowed school for girls studying in classes 7 and above. In the Taliban’s interpretation of Islam, there is no sawaab in educating girls. While women have so far […]
In respect to UNRWA’s latest statement on our report reviewing UNRWA-branded school materials, labeled for use in 2022, below is an executive summary. Given that UNRWA chose to reach out in its statement to IMPACT-se for guidance on the reviewed material, we felt compelled to provide additional information. Although not within the scope of our […]
Reformers Want Schools to Stop Churning out Arabic Students Who Can’t Speak Arabic
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Carrie Keller-Lynn -- The Times of IsraelEarly this year, an Arab lawmaker caused a stir by delivering a speech on the Knesset floor in Arabic. As Ra’am MK Walid Taha held forth on a controversial bill being considered, a right-wing parliamentarian assailed him, demanding that he speak Hebrew. Days later, another right-wing MK called for legislation mandating Hebrew in the plenum. […]
A Forgotten Generation: Syrian Children Dream of Education in Lebanon
/in Blog, Frontpage /by JRSAmin and his family fled Syria ten years ago, when the conflict broke out. He was just a baby when they arrived to Jbeil, Lebanon. When he was seven, Amin first joined JRS’s activities. Today, at 10 years old, he attends the JRS learning support program at Nicolas Kluiters Centre (NKC) in the morning and […]
A Case for Educational Justice in Africa
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Abdou Rahim Lema -- Mail&GuardianAffo, 29, was born in a polygamous family comprising more than two dozen children. He is the second child to have obtained a high school degree but the only one to have gone to university. For his seven years at high school, he had to balance his studies with part-time jobs to pay tuition fees […]
Mobile Schools Provide Hope for Afghan Children—Especially for Girls
/in Blog, Frontpage /by EPA-EFE -- Gandhara“Afghanistan’s education system has been devastated by more than three decades of sustained conflict. For many of the country’s children, completing primary school remains a distant dream—especially in rural areas and for girls—despite recent progress in raising enrollment.In the poorest and remote areas of the country, enrollment levels vary extensively and girls still lack equal […]
New Bus Line Speeds Pakistani Women to Education, Jobs
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Zofeen T. Ebrahim -- Thompson ReutersPakistani student Mah Jabeen credits a new public bus system in her home city with saving her from being stuck at her parents’ house doing chores – or even having to get married. Thanks to the Bus Rapid Transit system in the northwestern city of Peshawar, Ms. Jabeen said she had been able to continue […]
How Yemeni Parents Are Banding Together to Keep Their Kids in School
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Abdulla Ali -- The New HumanitarianSeven years into a deadly and devastating war, thousands of Yemeni parents are using what little they have left to fight for an untold victim of the country’s conflict: their childrens’ education. Ahmed Mahdi, 50, is one of them. The father of three drives a taxi in Yemen’s Houthi rebel-held capital city of Sana’a. He […]
Trolley School Helps Philippine Children Keep Their Education on Track
/in Blog, Frontpage /by ABC AustraliaA brightly decorated wooden trolley rumbles down a little-used rail track in the southern Philippines carrying four young teachers—two on the front and two in the back—pushing it along with their feet. Kitted out with a whiteboard, colorful charts, and a stack of books, the tiny, mobile school slides along from village to village three […]
Huddled in Secret Schools, Afghan Girls Refuse to Give Up on Education
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Christina Lamb -- The Sunday TimesBehind a yellow door in an alley blanketed by snow, 25 girls sit on the floor, huddled in coats and headscarves, in front of a white board. “What are you doing?” the teacher asks in English. “I am a student!” they chant in unison. Their plastic shoes that are piled outside the door are a […]
The Emirati School Curriculum: When Peace Goes to School
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Marcus Sheff -- The Jerusalem Post (Opinion)When President Isaac Herzog flies to the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, marking the first official visit of an Israeli president to the Gulf state, he will be welcomed by the man who is arguably the Middle East’s most effective educational reformer. According to The New York Times, Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, […]
The Arab Influencer Pushing the Abraham Accords From Abu Dhabi
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Tamara Zieve -- The CircuitAt the age of 28, when Loay Alshareef, then a French language student from Saudi Arabia, stumbled into his homestay in Paris to discover he was surrounded by Stars of David—his instinct was to turn on his heels and find another family to stay with. “I didn’t feel comfortable at the beginning,” he told The […]
Kurdish Education in Turkey: A Joint Responsibility
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Dr. Eldad J. Pardo -- Modern DiplomatTurkish elites often see Kurds as posing a mortal threat to their homeland’s territorial integrity. Kurdish elites often harbor pan-Kurdish dreams of their own. The rise to power of Erdogan’s Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2002 appeared to imply a watershed, bringing about a measure of cultural liberalization toward the Kurds. More Islam […]
Arabic-Learning ‘Madrasa’ App Developed by Technion Students
/in Blog, Frontpage /by JP Staff -- The Jerusalem PostStudents from the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion recently developed a voice-recognition app for the “Madrasa” project to help people learn Arabic. Part of the Madrasa project—which advocates for better communication in Israeli society through spoken Arabic courses—the app includes a voice recognition feature that will allow tens of […]
Egyptian Parliament Reopens Debate on Quran’s Place in the Curriculum
/in Blog, Frontpage /by George Mikhail -- Al-MonitorWhen the Egyptian Parliament recently considered a bill intended to support the use of Standard Arabic, the discussion grew heated between a a representative of Al-Azhar and a parliamentarian who objected to provisions about Quran memorization in primary school. Modern Standard Arabic is the formal dialect of the wider Arabic language, which there are now […]
Israelis Should Be Taught Arabic in Schools
/in Blog, Frontpage /by JPost Editorial -- The Jerusalem PostThere’s no expression that better demonstrates the new peaks Arab-Israeli relations have hit in recent years than a “picture is worth a thousand words.” Just in the past month, Israeli officials and military forces were photographed alongside Arab counterparts. A major change was also seen in the diplomatic sphere, which might not have received the […]
Artificial Intelligence Is Getting Better at Writing, and Universities Should Worry About Plagiarism
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Michael Mindzak & Sarah Elaine Eaton -- The ConversationThe dramatic rise of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has spotlit concerns about the role of technology in exam surveillance—and also in student cheating. Some universities have reported more cheating during the pandemic, and such concerns are unfolding in a climate where technologies that allow for the automation of writing continue to improve. Over […]
‘It Will Help Me to Achieve My Dream’: Helping Iraqi Girls Stay in School
/in Blog, Frontpage /by UN NewsWhen COVID-19 closed schools in Basra, southern Iraq, the academic prospects for many schoolgirls were put at risk. The 2,570 primary school children from Basra’s Shatt al-Arab district who are involved in the trial project from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP), receive a cash stipend to support their education. […]
A Middle East Scholar’s Impressions of the George Eckert Institute Report on Palestinian Textbooks
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Dr. Arnon GroissThe Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research recently completed its research of 174 Palestinian Authority textbooks and 16 teachers’ guides for 2017–20, grades 1-12, plus an additional seven textbooks published by the PA and modified by Israeli authorities for use in East Jerusalem schools. The research was initiated by the European Parliament upon requests […]
The Travails of Teaching Arabs Their Own Language
/in Blog, Frontpage /by The EconomistGod, says the Qur’an, chose Arabic for his revelation because it is easy to understand. But many of the world’s 470 million Arabic-speakers beg to differ. According to a report by the World Bank, almost 60 percent of ten-year-olds in Arabic-speaking countries (and Iran) struggle to read and understand a basic text. Despite decades of […]
As Most Students Return to Classrooms, Schools in Some Countries Have Been Shuttered for 18 Months Straight
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Sammy Westfall -- WPStudents across much of the world are trading in Zoom widows for chalkboards, in a global moment of hope and apprehension. In some places, including parts of the United States, many school doors shut for a year and a half have swung open, even amid resurgent coronavirus outbreaks. In five countries—Bangladesh, Kuwait, the Philippines, Saudi […]
IMPACT-se Review: The Georg Eckert Institute Report on the Palestinian Curriculum
/in Blog, Frontpage /by IMPACT-seThe 2021 Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research report into Palestinian Authority textbooks is a welcome addition to the corpus of knowledge about the most recent iteration of the Palestinian national curriculum. Commissioned by the European Union, this report identifies many of the same systemic problems that other research institutes have brought to light […]
Through Education Middle East Powers Vie to Shape the Next Generation of Muslims
/in Blog, Frontpage /by James M. Dorsey -- BESAEducation is emerging as a major flashpoint in competing visions of a future Muslim world. Rival concepts being instilled in the next generation are likely to shape what amounts to a battle for the soul of Islam. Reports published earlier this year by the Israel-based Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education […]
Girls’ Education ‘Worth Fighting For’, Malala Tells Education Summit
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Sean Coughlan -- BBC News“The world is facing a girls’ education crisis,” with more than 130 million girls missing out on school around the world, Malala Yousafzai has warned. “Their futures are worth fighting for,” the education campaigner told a global education summit in London. She said the recovery from the pandemic had to mean fair access to education. […]
UNICEF, UNESCO Urge World Leaders to Reopen Schools
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Voice of AmericaWorld leaders should prioritize reopening schools for in-person learning immediately in order to avoid a “generational catastrophe,” UNICEF and UNESCO said in a joint statement Monday. The organizations said that keeping schools closed to 156 million students in 19 countries, due to COVID-19, is causing potentially irreparable damage to child development. They also pointed out […]
Escaping Oblivion
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Eric Hoover -- Chronicle of Higher EducationNhial Deng couldn’t sleep. In late March the slender young man with deep-brown eyes lay under a low sheet-metal roof. He was thinking about a place he had never seen but often imagined. A famous bronze gate stood there, and soon he would know if he would one day walk through it. Long after midnight, […]
Education Poses an Existential Threat to Extremism
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Nicholas Kristof -- NYTLying in her hospital bed in Kabul, Afghanistan, having survived an extremist group’s bombing that killed more than 80 students at her school, a 17-year-old named Arifa was as determined as she was frightened. “I will continue my education, even if I’m afraid,” Arifa, who hopes to become a doctor, vowed to Richard Engel of […]
Refugee Children Explain How Education Helped Put Their Trauma Behind Them
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Ed Holt -- IPSEighteen-year-old Chuol Nyakoach lives in the Nguenyyiel Refugee Camp in Gambella, Ethiopia. Chuol is grateful that despite the trauma she has already experienced in her young life, she is able to continue her education in the refugee camp. Learning has given her a reason to wake up every day. “My life has changed and ECW’s […]
Turkish, Not Saudi, Schoolbooks Under Scrutiny
/in Blog, Frontpage /by James M. Dorsey -- BESAIn a sign of the times, Turkish schoolbooks have replaced Saudi texts as the focus of criticism of supremacist and intolerant curricula in the Muslim world. According to a recently released analysis of 28 Turkish textbooks, that country’s education system, which was once a model of secularism that taught evolution, cultural openness, tolerance toward minorities, […]
Yemeni Teachers’ Union Slams Houthi Curriculum Takeover
/in Blog, Uncategorized /by Christopher Hamill-Stewart -- Arab NewsYemen’s union of teachers has denounced the Iran-backed Houthi militia’s takeover of the country’s schools and curriculum, and accused Tehran of using the education system to pursue a “policy of cultural colonialism.” Yahya Al-Yinai, head of media at the Yemeni Teachers Syndicate, told the Daily Telegraph that the Houthis have made hundreds of changes to […]
Education Provides Hope Amid Despair for Syrian Refugees
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Racha El Daoi/Zaynab Mayladan – NRCIt has been a bleak decade for Syria’s children and young people. But education is providing a ray of hope. We met four young Syrian refugees in Lebanon who told us their stories, fears, and hopes for the future. A decade into the Syria conflict, millions of children have been born in displacement inside Syria […]
Even Suicide Bombings Can’t Keep These Students From School
/in Blog, Frontpage /by David Zucchino/Fahim Abed – NYTTwo and a half years ago, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest during an algebra class at the Mawoud Academy tutoring center. At least 40 students, most from Afghanistan’s Hazara ethnic minority, died as they studied for college entrance exams. Najibullah Yousefi, a teacher who survived the August 2018 blast, moved with his students […]
Middle East Needs to Learn Lessons From the Holocaust
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Dr. Ali Al Nuaimi -- Jerusalem PostWe are undergoing a historic change across the Middle East in the wake of the Abraham Accords, moving into an era of greater empathy and compassion as well as a stronger understanding of the concept of coexistence. But even in 2021, we still have many lessons to learn and the Holocaust is an essential pillar […]
Rehabilitated School Brings Together Conflict-Affected Communities in Ethiopia
/in Blog, Frontpage /by Rahel Negussie/Alemayehu Seifeselassie -- International Organization for MigrationFor Ethiopians like Ahmed, an eighth grader at Bilisuma Primary School, pursuing education in East Hararghe has been agonizing. An outbreak of violent conflict in 2016 led to the disruption of education and schools were damaged. “I have a very keen interest in finishing my studies. However, I was forced to stop for some time […]
Teaching Hate: Iran Textbooks Push Antisemitism
/in Blog, Frontpage /by TOI Staff -- Times of IsraelIranian schoolkids are studying antisemitism, hatred and conspiratorial material in their textbooks, including a theory that Western media hyped up the COVID-19 pandemic to thwart large-scale attendance at last year’s celebration of the Iranian revolution, according to a comprehensive study published by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Thursday. The ADL said its report, “Incitement: Antisemitism and […]