LDN Love Difference News #7
13-01-2005
Multi-ethnic schools: stories of
(un)predictable (un)success in Kosovo and Israeli BBC News reported two different stories on a common problem: coping with the ideal of a multi-ethnic school in Countries with huge nationalism issues. The first case, illustrated by BBC World Service's Masterpiece programme, is a landmark multi-ethnic school in Kosovo, the Al Maria school in Rahovec, built by the World Vision aid organisation in 2001. It was the province’s first post-war multi-ethnic school, embracing three communities - Albanian, Roma and Serbian. The aim of the Al Maria school was to bring a divided community together through its children. Among the lessons taught at the school are civic education classes, in which children learn the history of all three ethnic groups in the area. After the first difficulties, it looked working. But violence elsewhere in Kosovo in March 2004 saw children from Rahovec's Serbian enclave withdrawn from the school. Ten months on, they are yet to return. The
second case is that of the Galil school in the Galilee region of northern
Israel, reported by Nyer Abdou. Established in 1997, it was the first
mixed school in Israel to host fully integrated classrooms teaching
in both Arabic and Hebrew. The Hand-in-Hand enterprise, of which the
Galil school is a part, runs three schools. Other branches are in
Jerusalem and in the Arab village of Kfar Kara, in Wadi Ara. The theme
of integration is scrupulously reflected in the school’s staff.
The school has to deal with delicate issues such as drastically different
views of the same historical events. The bilingual mission of the
school is crucial to mutual understanding. Lessons regularly switch
from Hebrew to Arabic, with reading materials and discussions fluctuating
unpredictably between languages. Teachers, students and parents interviewed
by Nyer Abdou sound enthusiastic. Nevertheless, when they get out
of the school “they will realise that the world is much more
complicated”. |
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