Photo: opening march, by Hilde Stephansen
Day 1 of the World Education Forum – Palestine
On the opening day of the forum, an online workshop was conducted between the conference venue in Palestine and Flinders University, in Adelaide (Australia) on decentralised education.
The differing educational experiences of Palestine and elsewhere in Asia were compared and discussed. Keynote speakers included Dr Mouhamad Shaheen (Teacher Creativity Centre, Palestine), Rosdiana Sijabat (Atma Jaya Catholic University, Indonesia) and M. Adib Abdushomad (Flinders University, Australia).
Dr Shaheen related a case example from Palestine, where education had been decentralised to the local level, as an experiment. Ms Sijabat responded that Indonesia also had experiences of decentralisation and, whilst there were similarities in implementation, there were key differences in context and experiential outcomes.
Abdu Shomad explored the concept of educational rigour, and promoting higher-quality research at the State Islamic University of Indonesia. There was a spirited discussion on the teaching of natural sciences, and its relationship to Qu’ran understanding.
The concept of an extended, on-line, face-to-face dialogue between students from Asia, and activists within the World Education Forum was a highlight of Day 1 of the event.
[Released, 11pm (Ramallah time), 29 October 2010]
Requests for further information should be forwarded to will0447@flinders.edu.au