{"id":207372,"date":"2009-06-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T19:22:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?p=207372"},"modified":"2019-03-12T19:22:05","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T19:22:05","slug":"auto-insert-207372","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-207372\/","title":{"rendered":"Innovative learning supplies for classrooms in Gaza – Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵICEF press release"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Innovative learning supplies for classrooms in Gaza<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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GAZA, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 25 June 2009 – Brightly coloured cones, triangles and measuring tools were scattered across the school desks in the sparsely furnished fifth-grade classroom of the Mustafa Hafez primary school in Gaza City. <\/p><\/div>\n

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The math teacher, Ruba al-Zebdah, expressed surprise as she watched her students immersed in the process of measuring and calculating the area of a bright yellow circle.<\/p><\/div>\n

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As part of a wider distribution of educational materials in Gaza, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵICEF delivered interactive math and science teaching kits to this conflict-affected school. The teaching kits were locally developed by Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵICEF, in 2006, as part of an initiative to improve both the quality and content of education in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).<\/p><\/div>\n

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“The kits turned the class into an active one in a very untraditional way,” said Ms. al-Zebdah. “I think this kit is a treasure for every math teacher.”<\/p><\/div>\n

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Innovation in a challenging environment<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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\nAcross the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the lack of teaching facilities and overcrowded classrooms have directly and negatively affected learning achievements; in 2008, only 19.7 per cent of 16,000 sixth-graders in Gaza passed standardized tests in Arabic, math, science and English. <\/p><\/div>\n

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In Gaza, the dire situation is further exacerbated by the recent conflict and the two years of virtual blockade of nearly all goods entering the area, including educational materials. <\/p><\/div>\n

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Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵICEF designed the math and science kits to meet educational needs during emergencies and regular classroom teaching. A total of 8,592 kits have now been distributed to Palestinian Authority-run schools in OPT. <\/p><\/div>\n

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The kits have clearly energized Ms. Al-Zebdah’s classroom. “The practical part of the math class is much better for me than the theoretical one, because I get the idea more quickly,” said Dalal Sbeeh, 10, momentarily looking up from her calculations. <\/p><\/div>\n

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International recognition<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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\nIn 2007, the interactive teaching kits were selected as a Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵICEF ‘best practice’ innovation, thereby serving as learning models for other Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵICEF country offices. <\/p><\/div>\n

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Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵICEF has also included the teaching kits in the standard list of educational supplies that it uses in emergencies and regular programming.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Meanwhile, the education ministries in Lebanon and Syria have now started to use the kits in their schools. <\/p><\/div>\n

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Reaching students and teachers<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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\nTo maximise the impact of the teaching kits, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵICEF has trained over 6,000 teachers in their use and created a teachers’ guide and a training manual in Arabic. <\/p><\/div>\n

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“Through the training and the use of the kits the project is working to improve the teaching and learning environment,” says Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵICEF’s Head of Education in OPT Potung Shao. “We aim to challenge the passive learning environment in the classroom through hands-on activities, while motivating both the teachers and the students.”<\/p><\/div>\n

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Through its education programmes across both the West Bank and Gaza, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵICEF continues to enable children to keep learning despite the conflict, closures and violence. Use of the kits has partially filled a gap in education supplies and stimulated children’s enthusiasm for studying science and mathematics. <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Innovative learning supplies for classrooms in Gaza GAZA, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 25 June 2009 – Brightly coloured cones, triangles and measuring tools were scattered across the school desks in the sparsely furnished fifth-grade classroom of the Mustafa Hafez primary school in Gaza City. The math teacher, Ruba al-Zebdah, expressed surprise as she watched her students […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[2105],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2033,2441,2005],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-207372","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-release","document-source-united-nations-childrens-fund-unicef","document-subject-children","document-subject-education-and-culture","document-subject-gaza-strip","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/207372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/207372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=207372"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=207372"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=207372"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=207372"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=207372"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=207372"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=207372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}