History

Most of the Latin Patriarchate schools in Jordan and Palestine were established in the nineteenth century in the absence of state-established public schools. They were an extension of the Church’s spiritual effort. The schools were opened in societies that greatly suffered from poverty, ignorance, and poor health conditions during the Ottoman rule. They were traditional schools teaching religion, the Arabic language, and arithmetic.

The Latin Patriarchate (LPJ) was originally established in l847. Since the establishment of its first rural parish (Beit Jala, Palestine) in 1853, the Patriarchate activated its apostolic program based in the parish schools. As soon as a parish was founded, a school for boys and girls would be established. This is how the first missionaries were able to establish Catholic Communities in the rural areas, which, for centuries have not heard of the Catholic Church. In Jordan, the Latin Patriarchate also played a pioneering role in establishing the first schools there.

For over 146 years, the Patriarchate continues the development of the pastoral needs of the schools -first means of apostolate in the Holy Land- through an activity that promotes the faith as well as the human, intellectual and social development of the person.

Existing Conditions:

The Latin Patriarchate has a network of 42 schools, with 1110 staff members and 18,883 students in Jordan, Palestine and Israel. The LPJ schools’ system is one of the pioneer educational systems in the region, over 146 years in service of our society, spread all around and mostly in service of the needy, and in villages.

The Department of Education at the Latin Patriarchate (DELPJ) is trying its best to provide not only a high standard of education but also to initiate other programs. These programs would provide psychological assistance, ecological awareness, peace education and democracy education, so that not to fill the mind with information, but rather to prepare the student and his or her existence for a better future.

Importance

Reasons why to keep, maintain and develop the schools:

Now, like in the past, the parish schools are forming the majority of the catholic and Christian (of all denominations) youth in the cities and villages. Without these schools, thousands of Christian children living in a predominantly non-Christian community will be obliged to attend public schools where the atmosphere and the mentality are alien to the Christian faith, where the Lord’s Day on Sunday is a school day.

The parish schools are the best environment to enhance priestly and religious vocations.

The parish schools are by excellence ecumenical places. Since their inception they have accepted students from all communities and denominations, and offered them a solid foundation in religious, moral and intellectual education.

The parish schools work towards the human and social development of the poor population.

Improving the schools in villages helps reduce Christian emigration to the cities and to other countries.

Programs:

Wherever they are present, the schools follow the official curriculum. They ensure that all their students receive the prescribed curriculum in addition to the moral, civic and religious instructions through extra curricular activities.

The DELPJ has started to put more emphasis on the importance of protecting the environment and the means of effective conservation measures. The Department of Education tends to develop further its programs to meet the international standard and concepts in protection, conservation of resources and water related issues.

An environmental program had been introduced to schools in both Palestine and Jordan. Environmental clubs were formed in schools. The schools club’s activities include:

         Paper recycling project.

         Studies in flora and fauna.

         Investigations in environmental problems.

         Presentations of videos and talks on environmental topics.

         Camping and workshops for both students & teachers.

         Practical activities such as tree planting and clean-up campaigns.

DELPJ is introducing another program this year entitled, "Hearts and Hands Around the World" which will be an extremely beneficial program that will have lasting and widespread impact. Students will gain a strong sense of their place in the global community, including awareness of the needs of others, their responsibility as global citizens to address these needs, and their ability to have a positive impact on others in the world.

The "Hearts and Hands Around the World" program is based on spirituality and Christian values where faith will be reflected through a sense of service and volunteerism. God is love, and loving others is an integral component of Christianity that is exemplified through this program. As Jesus said in Matthew 22:39, "Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself". In Matthew 25 Jesus went on to say that when we feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, help a stranger, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and those in prison, then we are doing it to Him.

The Children’s English Reading Clubs have been successfully introduced to three schools in Palestine. The Children’s English Reading Clubs provide books and materials, as well as tape recordings of books and materials, to schools and community centers. These tools provide efficient English language instruction to students eager for contact with the English-speaking world. The students will thus be better prepared to enter the global economy, where English is the dominant language.

In Jordan, DELPJ is undertaking a program to develop the administrations of the schools, arranged by the Jordanian Ministry of Education, in conjunction with British expertise. The objective of this program is to achieve the following: Improving performance inside the classroom; encouraging team work spirit; drafting procedures to solve problems facing teachers; and preparing development plans for schools.

In an effort to promote cultural, ethnic and social understanding, the DELPJ sponsors a student correspondence exchange program. Working in partnership with schools abroad, children will have the opportunity to embark on a great learning experience.

The correspondence program can be effected between schools, classes or individuals. Initially, students will exchange pictures, personal history and information about particular interests such as hobbies and sports. Through ongoing correspondence, our children will come to know each other by gaining a richer knowledge of their respective cultures, and may begin long-term friendships. In a world that is growing ever smaller, students can greatly benefit from learning about each other’s life experiences and sharing their hopes and dreams for the future.

Students

In 1998/1999, the number of students attended the Latin Patriarchate parish schools reached 18,883. The majority of these students are poor Christians of various rites and denominations.

Salaries and Running Costs

All of the salaries of lay people and teachers, general running costs and maintenance expenditure are at the expense of the Latin Patriarchate. In Israel, the government subsidizes the private religious schools; taxes paid by the parents are reimbursed to the public or private schools where the children are enrolled. Due to the fact that most of the students of parish schools are coming from a poor background, the tuition and fees are very low compared to other private schools in the region. Therefore, the Latin Patriarchate is unable to cover the expenses of running the schools without the help of its benefactors.

Challenges

The early Church fathers endeavored to admit students at a nominal cost or gratis in most cases in order to bring up educated Christian generations. Thus, the popular notion was created--and which the Church helped in nurturing because there was no way of out of it--that the patriarchal schools are charitable, almost free, missionary schools that serve as an alternative to the public schools which were Islamic in nature. Indeed, and in most cases, the Christian student continues to this day to find himself a stranger in these public schools. Most of the Greek Orthodox and Protestant schools were also established in the nineteenth century in the same circumstances and were considered in the same vein.

Salaries and benefits: Teachers in our schools are under paid, due to lack of capacity to cover expenses, compared to their peers at other private schools. Therefore, good teachers tend to leave parish schools seeking higher salary positions at other schools.

Maintenance: There is no defined budget for maintenance. Some of the schools are in a bad shape. Urgent maintenance work should be done in many of our schools.

The school system today, is in need of considerable upgrading, not only in infrastructure but also in the areas of teacher training and of promoting parent involvement in the teaching process. Due to the stagnation of educational development over the last thirty years, most teachers and schools are still using traditional teaching methods rather than modern methodologies in which people no longer think about education according to the traditional idea of giving and receiving information. Instead, modern educational theories see teaching as a process in which students are challenged and motivated to think, research and reflect and in which the teachers themselves are constantly challenged to learn.

Teachers training: The level of education among the teachers varies from only having their High School (Tawjihi) certificate, to having a diploma of education, to having their Bachelors in a specific subject area but with minimum if any communication skills or educational background. Our teachers urgently need to be trained and those with no degree need to upgrade their skills.

Special Education Program: Children with learning and emotional disabilities exist in every society. A study conducted by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Palestine showed that up to 10% of children suffer from learning difficulties and need some type of remedial education. To date, out of the 43 Patriarchate schools in Palestine, Jordan and Israel, only 4 have a special needs program. These programs have been running for 3 to 4 years and have had considerable success with 80% of the students passing on to the next grades. The Patriarchate would like to be able to expand this essential program into all of its schools. This will involve training staff and hiring new special education teachers and also the translation and adaptation of teaching materials into Arabic as there is currently a lack of acceptable materials available.

Counseling: The government sees counseling as such an essential service that it now requires all schools to have counselors. Consequently, we are in an immediate need of approximately thirty more counselors and a corresponding budget for this important service. Unfortunately, this is a big financial challenge; the Latin Patriarchate has hired four (4) school counselors in Palestine, and three (3) counselors in Jordan. We can't afford introducing thirty-six (36) new staff members with new salaries and benefits. We have to decide on this important issue as soon as we possible; otherwise our license wouldn’t be renewed.

Follow-up system: In our Department of Education, we are lacking a follow-up system for teachers, headmasters, maintenance, supplies, etc. The only system that is working right is the accounting system and with one accountant. This year, given our limited financial resources, we've been able to increase our staff and create a financial department and a purchasing department.

Languages: English is taught as a second language in all of our schools. In addition, some of our schools teach French. Languages need technical assistance and support. We need to increase the hours for the language lessons and this means more staff otherwise we'll face problems with the standards in education.

Computer Sciences: Computer science is becoming vital in education. Governmental schools introduced Computer labs and teaching, and all private schools did the same. As Latin Patriarchate schools, we're not allowed to stay behind and lose our students to governmental schools or others. It's a must that we establish Computer Labs and introduce computer sciences in education in all of our schools as soon as possible.

General Director’s Office

Until recently, two people, a clerk and an accountant used to work at the general director’s office. Things are different now because more work is required to run the schools. Staffing is needed. This year we have eight employees working at the head office including some volunteers and others as part timers due to lack of funds. There is an urgent need to organize the work and create specialized departments in the head office to handle different kinds of work.

        Financial / Accounting Department

        Personnel Department

        Purchasing Department

        Public Relations Department

        Technical Support Department (Supervising)

        Programs Department

        Local fund raising

Through the Adopt-a-Student program, DELPJ seeks to provide human, spiritual and financial support for the children of these schools, and to assure them that they have not been forgotten.

DELPJ is asking local organizations, groups and individuals to reach out and help the children in our schools through the Adopt-a-Student program. Assistance can be provided either by donations to specific school projects, or by direct support to individual students.

Problems and challenges:

Salaries and cost of living, pension

Losing our best teachers to other Catholic and Christian schools

Deferred Maintenance in the schools and its impact on the school environment

Lack of educational supplies

Lack of educational facilities (Labs, libraries, Art rooms, Sport, Playgrounds, Maps…)

Competition within Schools and place of the Latin Schools…

Requirements of the Ministry of education (Counseling, Music, Computer Sciences…)

Need for more space

Unhealthy conditions in some of our schools.

Extra Curriculum activities…there is no budget.

Urgent Budget Needs:

Annual maintenance

Supplies

Additional required staff

Educational facilities.

Teachers training

Increase the Salaries, pension programs

Supporters

The main benefactors to the Latin Patriarchate are:

The Knights and ladies of the “Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem via Lieutenancies and of The Grand Magistere”.

The Congregation for the Oriental Churches.

N.B. All the public schools in Israel, Palestine and Jordan are free of charge in primary, middle and secondary levels. In the Latin Patriarchate schools, small fees are required from those who can afford it.