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ELEMENTARY PREPARATORY EDUCATION
Basic elementary and preparatory schooling for nine to ten years is available to all Palestine refugee pupils registered with the Agency. The Agency operates 644 schools in its five fields of operation, which in the 2001/2002 scholastic year had an enrollment of 486,020 pupils. The 16,965 educational staff who run the schools and training centres account for more than half of all UNRWA staff. In most areas, pupils at UNRWA schools out-perform government school pupils in state qualifying examinations. Retention rates at Agency schools are high, and drop-out rates are low. UNRWA's school system was the first in the Middle East to achieve equal enrollment of boys and girls, in the 1960s. The Agency also offers special education services to help slow learners and children with learning difficulties participate in the mainstream education programme. Under agreements made with the host authorities UNRWA has to use the curricula and textbooks of the countries/territories where it operates. However the Agency also creates educational enrichment materials to supplement the local curriculum. One of UNRWA’s key programmes is aimed at the promotion of non-violent conflict resolution and human rights. These systematic efforts, which have included translations into Arabic of relevant textbooks, the creation of special manuals and the involvement of UNRWA pupils in cross-community summer camps, has reached every Agency school in the West Bank and Gaza and are to be expanded to the other fields. A primary concern of UNRWA is to maintain this access to basic education. School enrollments are increasing as the refugee population grows and overcrowded classrooms are commonplace. To maximize use of limited resources, UNRWA is forced to run many of its schools on double shifts with two separate groups of pupils and teachers sharing a single school building. This is far from ideal as it reduces the number of schooling hours and adversely affects the participation of pupils in extra-curricular school activities. The Agency has an ongoing building programme to upgrade and expand its education infrastructure and special contributions from donor governments have enabled the Agency to build new classrooms and schools. However, UNRWA still has to operate some schools in rented premises and many schools urgently need upgrading or replacing. Schooling disrupted
During the intifadah (uprising) in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (1987-1993), children lost up to 45 days of schooling in a year because of curfews, strikes or confrontations with the Israeli authorities. In Lebanon, children lost months and some even more than a year of schooling because of the prolonged civil conflict and the 1982 Israeli invasion, which saw the destruction of a number of UNRWA schools. The Agency responded by prolonging the school year when allowed to do so by the authorities or by providing extra classes to compensate for lost instruction time. However, such lengthy disruptions have had a negative influence on the quality of education. Since the start of the second intifadah in in the West Bank and Gaza in September 2000 teachers and pupils have regularly been unable to reach their schools and thousands of teaching days have been lost. Schools have come under fire on many occasions and have been used as military outposts and detention centres. The violent events witnessed by the children have caused emotional and psychological trauma and many have suffered the loss of classmates or family members. Examination pass rates have collapsed because of the conflict and UNRWA is running hundreds of hours of remedial classes in each school to try to compensate for the time lost to education. The Agency has also hired teams of trauma counsellors to work with those children who have been emotionally scarred by their experiences. Host government schools
Secondary education in Lebanon
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