Education Reform Strategy - Unrwa

9.0 CONCLUSION
9.1.1. Education is the foundation of human freedom, capital development and wellbeing.
Over the last 60 years, UNRWA has provided education to millions of Palestine refugees
from three generations. The need to revisit the vision of the UNRWA education programme
to ensure it reflects the changing global, regional and national contexts has been widely
acknowledged. Similarly, the needs of the Palestine refugees have evolved over time and the
vision for education thus seeks to develop their full potential to be confident, innovative,
questioning, thoughtful, tolerant, open-minded individuals, contributing positively to the
development of their society and to the global community.
9.1.2. Quality Education is dependent on the holistic, coherent approach – it cannot rest
with the implementation of one strand, such as teacher training, only. This is why the
UNRWA Education Reform draws on the Universalia analysis of the whole education system
in order to determine what needs to be done to improve the overall quality. To this effect the
Reform comprises eight (8) key dimensions, all of which interact and interrelate with each
other. For enhanced teacher performance, teachers undoubtedly need to be effectively trained,
but they also need to be well selected, trained and motivated through extrinsic and intrinsic
means. The Teacher Policy thus addresses issues of recruitment, career progression,
performance evaluation and professional support structures.
9.1.3. Similarly the curriculum and the materials which teachers use to teach their students
need to incorporate conceptual sequencing, and reflect key concepts, values and principles.
The development of the Curriculum Frameworks and the Human Rights material, alongside
the teacher training, will thus seek to ensure that curriculum materials support UNRWA
students’ learning and their personal development.
9.1.4. Quality education must be accessible for all UNRWA students and to this effect the
importance of an Inclusive Education approach, supported by a Policy, tools and classroom
strategies is important. UNRWA students must have routes for their ongoing development to
enable them to realise their own potential, as well as to contribute to their society’s
development. The role of TVET in this regard is crucial and a well designed programme,
which is responsive to existing and emerging market needs, both in terms of technical
knowledge and personal, social skills and attitudes of the students, can do much to support
individual Palestine students and their community, as well as contribute to the development of
the national, regional and global community.
9.1.5. Underpinning all interventions towards an effective, quality, relevant and efficient
education system is knowledge and understanding of challenges, opportunities and of
programmatic impact. To this effect, the Education Reform Strategy places strong emphasis
on building the capacity of the UNRWA education cadres to understand the implications of
existing research in terms of their work in delivering the education programme. It also will
provide structures and support for staff to identify where UNRWA specific research is
required, have the capacity to undertake such research, and to be able to reflect findings into
programmatic planning.
9.1.6. The interrelationship of these key dimensions towards the achievement of
educational quality is thus fundamental to the rationale, design and implementation of the
Reform. There is then a need for their alignment with overall Governance frameworks. The
UNRWA Reform will ensure that a clear, coherent Education Governance Framework, with
70