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SCHOOLS FOR THE FUTURE |
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This
project is providing technical equipment, learning materials and
infrastructure upgrades to an under-assisted rural co-ed public school
in North Lebanon which is deprived of the opportunity to benefit from
the resources and facilities of it’s counterparts in urban locales.
There is a historical pattern in Lebanon of neglect of public
schools in general and of rural schools in particular.
This coupled with the twenty-year civil war has left most public
rural schools lacking in every regard.
This project will directly improve the education of the children
of the locale. As well, it will improve the ability of the teachers and
administrators to provide the kind of education that every child
deserves. In order to achieve these objectives, HUMANSERVE is aiding the school in purchasing equipment and supplies and to pay for training programs for teachers and staff as deemed essential by a decree given by the Government of Lebanon to all public schools in 1998. The new standards are part of the design to rebuild the infrastructure devastated during the civil war and to prepare Lebanon for the new millennium. Although the government is dictating that all schools must be upgraded to the new standard, it is not providing any of the necessary funding to provide the new programs and curriculum, not to mention the equipment, training and supplies needed to implement them. Ijdibrine
Public Elementary School is located in the village of Ijdibrine, in the
district of Al-Koura, in the northern region of Lebanon.
The village is in a rural, mountainous area 60 km north of the
capital, Beirut, and 30 km south of Tripoli.
The population of the village is approximately 1500.
Ijdibrine Public Elementary School is the only education facility
in the village.
It provides classes for 60 students (co-ed) from Kindergarten to
Grade 5.
The staff is made up of 6 teachers and a principal. The capacity
of the school is 120 students, but many children in the village are
bused out of the area to private educational facilities due to the local
school’s lack of resources, supplies and modern infrastructure.
Those who attend the school are from families with the least
resources who are unable to pay for transportation and tuition at the
better-equipped private schools. The
teachers and principal of the school are directly involved in the
planning and implementation of the project on the behalf of the students
and their families. The
public elementary school facility in Ijdibrine has existed in its
present form for over 50 years. All
staff, with the exception of the principal and two teachers, live in the
village and have been working at the school for many years.
This gives them first-hand experience in the day-to-day operation
of the school and personal relationships with all the beneficiaries of
the project. The
beneficiaries of this project are the students, teachers, families and
the village of Ijdibrine and surrounding area.
Currently, the school is run on a restrictive budget.
Because of the lack of funding before, during and after the civil
war, the school barely has the minimal requirements needed to provide a
comprehensive education to its students.
The only equipment in the classrooms are benches and
tables for the students and a desk for the teacher.
There are no audio-visual aids, computers, science labs, fine
arts supplies, etc. For example, prior to the acquisition of a
second-hand photocopier (donated by HUMANSERVE
in October 1998 during a field visit to the school), the teachers were
writing all examination papers and homework assignments in longhand for
each of the students. One of the new government education delivery requirements is
the employment of multiple-choice testing and individual handouts for
homework and resource materials. This
meant that it was no longer feasible to write examination questions or
homework assignments on the blackboard to be copied by each student. The attempt to comply with the new government standards
without access to a photocopier was extremely frustrating and costly in
terms of the teacher’s time and energy. This project was identified by the staff of Ijdibrine Public Elementary School and verified by HUMANSERVE during a field visit to the school and meetings with the teachers and administrative staff in October 1998.
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