Education in the old city

Radio Hayah speaks to Saliba Khutab

عربى

I am with Saliba Kuttab from Frere school, Now Saliba what is Frere school?

Frere school is a school that started with a Saint, his name is Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, he was a French priest and he had the idea to give teaching, learning for the kids, the poor kids, this is the meaning of Frere school, the education was for the poor and after several years it became education for everybody.

Are you just here in the Middle East or are you all round the world.?

All around the world, we have in 76 countries all around the world.

How was the Jerusalem school started here and when was it started.?

It was the idea of two brothers who came from France and they had the idea to open a school in Palestine and the first school it was in Jerusalem, They took land from the Latin Patriarch and they started the school I think it is in 1876.

A lot of history.

Yeah

Now you were a student here over 50 years ago, tell us a little bit about that.

Yes I was a student when I was 5 years old because you know in the old city, we lived in the old city and the school was near our house so all the kids they came to the school so as to play, it was the work of a community there, so we played basket ball, football and our parents they put us in the school and I learned in this school 17 years, then I went to France to study education and physical education, I came back as a teacher then I became responsible and now I am the director of the school.

Have you seen a lot of changes over the years.?

Yes of course because all the ideas, the education itself it changes, But you know we need a lot to change the philosophy of education in our country, especially in our school, I am looking for changing the education to start with the technology, to put technology in education and go go out from the box, Not to stay in the box in education learning and teaching.

Will that make it easier for the children.?

Of course because now the children they have the internet and they like to be taught in giving them some games and to discover everything all the materials that they can learn, Its better for the kid to discover it and to learn it after.

And I understand that you are wanting to develop a radio station here in the school.?

Yes, you know we have the radio every morning, we can do it two or three times a week, but I think it is so traditional, the idea that I have is to do a simple radio and that we can put the radio 24 hours for our kids and even for the families and the community of Jerusalem.

Are you wanting the children to get involved in making shows and making music.?

Yes, by themselves they prepare everything and they can produce it and give it to the people who are around the school and in Jerusalem also.

Is this something that is unique in the Holy Land ?

I think so yes, I don't know if there are schools that are thinking about this, But we have to develop it to become a small radio, a simple one. so some students they like this so we can give them the opportunity to work on this idea.

What is the mission of the school here.?

The mission of the school is to firstly everybody has to live together, there is no difference between Christians and Muslims or even Jews, No difference between religions and then our mission is to give the possibility of our children to have the better education and to be near to God. This is our vision.

How many children do you have here and what sort of ages are they ?

We have 600 students in the New Gate school and we have in the Beit Hanina school we have around 1150, the age is from 5 years old until 18 years old.

And you also have a school in Bethlehem as well ?

In Bethlehem also and we have one in Jaffa, We have 4 schools in the Holy Land.

Are you a mixed school between Boys and Girls as well.?

Yes before 15 years ago it was only boys and now we have mixed between Boys and Girls, but the problem that we have is we have 2 thirds of the kids are boys and 1 third they are girls, so it will be better if we have 50/ 50, this is what we are looking also.

Is it a challenge being a mixed school.?

No it is not a challenge, I think it is better to have a mixed school you know when we have boys and girls we can give the best education also.

You are a Christian school but you have Muslims and Christians coming together.

Yes we are a Christian school but as I said our Frere that are responsible for our schools they have the idea, the vision that always we have to respect each other and we have to respect the other religion, So the Muslims they can take their lessons, Their Islamic lessons equally as the Christians so we have no difference between this ,The student they never feel that they have differences between each other.

Is the Christian message important here for the school ?

Yes, it's very important But we don't force it, So as we respect the Muslims, we know that we have Muslims and Christians, we respect everybody But we enforced the Christian education.

What sort of difficulties does the school face being here in the New gate.?

You know it is in the Old city, It is very difficult for the parents to come, Every time, especially if they are living outside the old city, for our children it is very difficult because, to come to the New Gate, so the parents if they are coming from Beit Safafa, they have to come with a Car, Sometimes they can't go to the new gate but near the new gate they can put the Car in Notre Dame hotel But it is a little bit dangerous for the Kids to cross the street.

Because you are right here, Right here in the Old city of Jerusalem aren't you ?

It is something important, As I said for everyone who is coming here we are so glad that we are in the old city because for our kids it’s the opportunity to go through and visit all the old and historical and religious places, The Holy Sepulchre ,all The places we have for Christians and Muslims and we will have also maybe next year we are going to have a program where kids from 5 years to 18 so our mission our kids can finish the school and they know everything, the historical things and even the places and monuments that we have in the old city.

Just your location is a history lesson in itself isn't it?

That’s it and even our school inside we have the Prison of St Peter in the Old time and we hope that also in our program that we can give them a little bit of history about St Peter, And we also have in this school a beautiful view that we can see Jerusalem from the 4 parts, we can see Jerusalem East and Jerusalem west .

Do you have lots of out of school activities ?

Sure we have many visits in the old city and even during the lessons that we give to our students they can go outside to Bethlehem, to Ramallah to the cities they have to visit, they can also visit the factories that we have in the West Bank something like that. For our students in TawJihii (Like A Level) they have the possibility to visit the Palestinian Universities and the Hebrew Universities so as to have ideas, they will choose which University they will go to and continue their studies.

What is your prayer of the future of the school ?

I am looking to search every part in the school so we can use it in Education and I am looking to give the best education to our students especially in entering the Technology and learning and teaching and even for our kids that we can let them finish the school with the best personality that they can have. This is what I am looking for.