Happy World Teachers’ Day! Today, we celebrate your invaluable contributions to the education of Palestine Refugee children and youth at UNRWA schools, vocational training centres, and educational science institutes.
If students are at the heart of a school, teachers are its lifeblood. The role of the teacher is not just to impart literacy and numeracy. Teachers also guide and develop creative, curious, and critical thinkers so that the next generation is equipped to solve complex problems in an increasingly complicated world while also building the skills students will need to fill the jobs of tomorrow.
This year, the WTD theme “The teachers we need for the education we want: The global imperative to reverse the teacher shortage” highlights the urgency of supporting teacher recruitment, retention, and development to ensure quality education for all, in line with Sustainable Development Goal 4.
Teachers are naturally lifelong learners. We believe in our profession because we have ourselves been successful learners and we want to share learning and an excitement for learning with others. UNRWA continues to support you with in-service training and the support of specialists to help you further develop and modernize your teaching practices. As we implement the Agency’s ICT4E Strategy, we will especially focus on building teacher capacity to effectively and efficiently use modern class management tools as well as to teach using digital pedagogies.
Through our two educational science institutes, ESF and FESA, we are supporting pre-service teacher training. Building a cadre of well-trained, highly skilled young teachers ready to use modern child-centred activity-based teaching helps Palestine Refugee children and youth find solutions for the challenges facing them. Graduates from these two institutes go on to teach
in UNRWA schools and in schools around the region. Through their work, we are building the next generation of teachers and contributing what we can to addressing the global teacher shortage.
As UNRWA’s new Director of Education, and as a former teacher, I have enjoyed my early visits to UNRWA schools these past six months, meeting some of you, seeing your classrooms, and hearing about your successes and challenges. Together we will work to improve teaching and learning in UNRWA schools to improve the lives of Palestine refugee students in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank. In the coming year, I look forward to visiting more of you and looking at how we can better support our students and their aspirations.
I would like to thank you for the warm welcome I’ve received from you and celebrate your dedication and leadership today and every day.
Director of Education, HQ (A)
Background Information:
UNRWA is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. The United Nations General Assembly established UNRWA in 1949 with a mandate to provide humanitarian assistance and protection to registered Palestine refugees in the Agency’s area of operations pending a just and lasting solution to their plight.
UNRWA operates in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, The Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Tens of thousands of Palestine refugees who lost their homes and livelihoods due to the 1948 conflict continue to be displaced and in need of support, nearly 75 years on.
UNRWA helps Palestine Refugees achieve their full potential in human development through quality services it provides in education, health care, relief and social services, protection, camp infrastructure and improvement, microfinance, and emergency assistance. UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions.
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