Written by: Abeer Al-Barghouthi
The publication of this article coincides with an occasion that we have all experienced, i.e., General Secondary Education Certificate Examination, “Tawjihi” in Palestine. This occasion is accompanied by joy and sadness and blame and criticism, regardless of the achieved grade point average. On top of that, there is an increasing gap between the social components within the Palestinian society, especially when we see families who are unable to express their joy and may not be able to financially cover their children’s tuition fees, despite their high grades. This financial situation has a negative impact on the educational process now and in the future.
We say this because as soon as the academic year begins, the battle for reputation, the future and competition begin. It is as if the moment of truth has come, either success and moving towards a bright future, or failure. It is not the student alone who suffers from Tawjihi, but his/her whole family because they all stayed up together, tired, and waiting to cross the darkness of this year. Students are set against each other, being compared with the son of so-and-so and the daughter of so-and-so, who achieved high marks despite their difficult economic situation. This is the Tawjihi battle that is repeated every year. Every year passes with the same situation, along with the same tension of nerves and exhaustion for students, who study night and day to save his/her family from the humiliation of receiving a low mark. Students must succeed in overcoming all of these challenges.
The questions that remain on all of our minds are: (1) Is Tawjihi, in its current state, a real tool for evaluation in its form, content and method of implementation? (2) Does it actually measure the classification of success? (3) Does it determine that the student’s grade will allow him/her to succeed in universities? (4) Is Tawjihi a playground for parents to compete amongst themselves over whose son or daughter received the higher mark? (5) Is it a smooth transition from one educational stage to another? (6) Are we keeping pace with world developments in the field of a consistent education path that qualifies students to reach a more creative and bright future?
Many questions touched the doors of all those concerned in the Tawjihi process, from the family to the school and to the supervisory authorities concerned with building future education and preparing generations to respond effectively to scientific developments that coincide with the information revolution, the future economy and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, with its opening of horizons for artificial intelligence and data science in all fields.
It is a stage of conflict between two models, the first is traditional and is based on tools that experience revealed that it is closer to attempts to prove lack of understanding or prove the difficulty of passing Tawjihi, of which only a few people mastered it after they paid a harsh price. It is a stage in which all communication and activity is prohibited for Tawjihi students, a stage used to justify any decision, delay or apology from the family because it is busy with the requirements of the Tawjihi student(s). Regardless of the purpose behind this, it is a testimony to the extent to which the current model threatens all stability and testimony that everything is at stake for a whole year that is almost longer than all the years that preceded it in school.
The second model is the modern one that many countries are developing step by step until the Tawjihi year is the preparatory year for the next year of university education. A year that represents a regular preparation, based on discovering the students’ interests and abilities since the ninth or tenth year, and the student begins to determine his/her path in coordination and conscious supervision by the school. Whoever has an engineering, medical, or other preference, takes this foundational path from school, while the last year of school is a certificate of readiness to move to the first academic year at the university completely. S/he also moved from the eleventh grade to the twelfth grade without psychological and social pressures that we could not justify, even though the age of our Tawjihi has exceeded decades and may be close to a century and is still the same, a season of suffering from all sides.
The development of Tawjihi, with all its components, requires a strategic review of the content, tools and the pressures. The family is under pressures and fears that their daughter or son puts his/her past, present and future at stake. The requirements must be reviewed to prepare the Tawjihi student to smoothly enter the next stage of his/her academic career. The role of the educational and supervisory institution must be reviewed to highlight its ability to modernize and develop rehabilitation tools, not to defend tools whose lifespan exceeds decades.
We must discuss this topic of its importance for our generations’ futures, a future that requires healthy generations free from all pressures. Today’s students are the leaders of the future, and improving their preparation will have a significant impact on the quality of their abilities and capabilities in the future. The quality of such generations will necessarily mean a stronger Palestinian society that is more capable of keeping pace with developments in societies, building institutions and modern states. The quality of students is linked to the quality of their outputs, productions and contributions in various scientific fields and later in the labor market, as they are the basis of the labor force regardless of the nature of their jobs in the future. The right beginnings often lead to healthy endings, while pressures and moral and psychological distortion, whatever their justifications, do not lead to developing peoples’ capability of facing challenges. We need students who are good at innovation and are not just a copy of the old generation.
The opinions expressed in this article are the views of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Association or donor.
