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AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools

Thursday, March 17, 2022

Under the title “Building Capabilities … Opportunities and Challenges”, Arab American University- Ramallah Campus hosted the first educational conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools in Palestine that was organized by the general management of Latin Patriarchate Schools in Jerusalem under the auspices of Prelate Pierbattista Pizzaballa and the Minister of Education Prof. Marwan Awartani.

The conference that targeted the workers and staff of the Latin Patriarchate Schools aims to build human capabilities, improve education, learn new contemporary topics in the modern era and honor winners of “creative teacher” competition that was organized by the Latin Patriarchate Schools.

The activities of the conference that will continue for three days and that will take place in the halls of AAUP- Ramallah Campus in a ceremony that was attended by Prelate Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Dr. Muayad Abusaa- the Acting President of AAUP and the VP for Academic Affairs, Dr. Suhair Qasim- the Director of the Directorate of Education in Birzeit as a representative of Prof. Marwan Awartani- the Minister of Education, Dr. Yaqoub Rafidi- the General Director of Latin Patriarchate Schools in Palestine, Ms. Abeer Hanna- the CEO of Latin Patriarchate Schools in Palestine along with some monks and nuns, principles of schools and teachers.

Prelate’s Speech

Prelate Pierbattista Pizzaballa started the ceremony in a speech as he welcomed the guests and stressed on the interest of the Latin Patriarchate Schools in Palestine in education and how much they want to invest in it to rise good youth in Palestine. He added that the Patriarchate started schools and cared about education since 170 years ago, and praised the role of the general management of the schools, who try to deliver the special message of the Latin Patriarchate in education and learning and upbringing generations who are following-up the modern developments. This conference was organized to benefit the staff of these schools from teachers to administrative by hosting well-experienced Palestinian experts.

Prelate Pizzaballa also thanked AAUP for the hosting of the conference and providing the possibilities for them, and praised its role in creating and rising generations ready for the labor market and equipped with education and certificates to serve the community and the country. Moreover, he thanked the Ministry of Education for its continuous support to all schools in Palestine.

Ministry of Education Speech

In her speech on the behalf of Prof. Marwan Awartani, Dr. Suhair Qasim- the Director of education Directorate in Birzeit transferred the greetings of the Minister, and she explained how the ministry puts developing and improving education as part of its strategic plan and provides a safe educational environment for students. Dr. Qasim also explained that the Ministry is working on two sides; the first is the education environment as it started initiatives in order to blend in the local community in the work to provide students with a good environment, and the other side is building the abilities of the Ministry employees, either staff members in schools or in the general management in the Ministry, directorates and schools.

Dr. Qasim emphasized on the importance of the educational conferences of a targeted aims that address specific problems, benefit from experts and follow-up modern developments and she thanked everyone who contributed in this conference. 

AAUP Speech

In his speech on behalf of Prof. Ali Zeidan Abu Zuhri- the University President, Dr. Muayad Abusaa- the VP for Academic Affairs in AAUP welcomed the attendees and guests and said: “since its establishments, Arab American University had a clear vision to support education in Palestine and fulfill the requirements of the labor market by preparing students who are able to compete in the market according to the Palestinian special cases”. He added that: “the University proved its success through the years as the achievements were huge from the extending from Jenin to Ramallah to the expanding in the undergraduate and graduate programs, as currently the university is offering over 55 MA programs and 14 PhD programs including some programs specialized in Data Sciences, Communication and Media Sciences, Health and Medical Sciences and the different programs related to Education and Innovation, etc.”

He also explained that AAUP has recently added to its achievements, academic and research bank the establishment of the first of its kind in Palestine Weather Station, which is special in its location and its connection with the satellites. He also mentioned that the university is finalizing the prosthetics factory that is considered to be the largest in the Middle East and will be opening soon to provide services to students and the local and Arab communities.

Dr. Abusaa stressed on the importance of cooperation between universities, schools and general organizations in order to translate education to the needs of the era and said that the hard work and the development especially in the education sector is what Palestine needs.

In his conclusion, Dr. Abusaa said: “I appreciate this initiative that will have a positive impact on the education process in your schools and we hope that such experience will continue in other institutions in order to serve education in the country because we believe that students are the center and main aim for education”.

The Speech of the General Administration of the Latin Patriarchate Schools

Dr. Yaqoub Rafidi- the General Director of Latin Patriarchate Schools in Palestine started his speech by thanking the Ministry of Education for sponsoring the first educational conference and Arab American University for hosting the conference in its campus in Ramallah for three days, and he said that the first Patriarchate has tried since 1847 to build churches and focus on schools and education when education was almost nothing to care about. He explained that nowadays there are 43 schools spread around Palestine, Jordan and Galilee with 120 thousand students studying in them and 1800 teachers who are continuously trained. Dr. Rafidi also mentioned that the Latin Patriarchate Schools is working according to a strategic plan to achieve four main goals which are, caring about education quality, enhancing a safe educational environment, developing organizations and communicating with the local community.

In addition, Dr. Rafidi talked about the developments that the schools have witnessed during the past years that the general administration focused on in order to maintain its efficiency, to build a Palestinian human being and develop curriculums and teaching staff. This conference aims to focus on the needs of the staff to be of higher capabilities from benefiting from experts who were hosted in the conference. Moreover, Dr. Rafidi said that the general administration always seeks to encourage teachers as for instance the schools launched the Creative Teacher Contest that had different standards to choose the creative teacher.  

Announcing winners

During the activities of the conference, a video of the Creative Teacher competition was projected that depended on an internal committee that chose some outstanding teachers, and on an external committee that evaluated the requests. 20 teachers were nominated and 8 of them were interviewed, then three only were chosen as the first winners of the first places. In the first place was teacher Nihad Abu Ziad from Latin Patriarchate School- Jifna, teacher Thaera Fawadlah won the second place from Latin Patriarchate School- Aboud and at the third place came teacher Rozy Afanaeh from Al Ahliyyah College.   

At the end of the opening ceremony, the winner teachers were honored, and the sponsors of the conference of the Ministry of Education and Arab American University, the supporters of the conference, the internal and external committees were honored too, while during the conference a video about Latin Patriarchate Schools was also projected.

The Conference Activities

The events and activities of the conference then started and it included lectures and training courses that were organized for three days in the halls of Arab American University- Ramallah Campus and targeted Arabic, Math and Sciences teachers along with the new teachers, kindergarten teachers, old teachers, secretaries, principles, vice-principles and accountants.

AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools
AAUP - Ramallah Campus Hosts the First Educational Conference for the Latin Patriarchate Schools