From Abu Dis to Camden

In June 2006 schools in Camden received some special visitors. The Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association arranged for eight Palestinian children and three teachers from two schools to spend a week in Camden, London. They were hosted by local families and during a packed itinerary visited schools across the borough.

Abu Dis is a small Palestinian town to the east of Jerusalem, separated from the outskirts of the city by the West Bank barrier.

World Class caught up with them on a visit to the 'Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East' exhibition at the British Museum.

School visit

One of the schools the children visited was Ackland Burley School in Tuffnell Park.

Ahmd says, "It's very different. In Abu Dis students stay in the same class and teachers for different subjects visit the class. Here children go into different classes."

The girls noticed differences as well. "We don't have free lunch," says 15 year old Ahd. "We have to pay around 50 shekel a year."

When they talked to British children they found that knowledge about their country was limited.

"Before we came, we knew where London was and what the famous places were," Haneen says, "but they didn't know as much about Palestine."

"They didn't know about the wall," says Rana.

But in some ways school life is the same. They have interests and aspirations like any other teenagers. Ahd writes for a local magazine and wants to be a journalist.

School life

The school day begins early in Abu Dis. Students start lessons at 8am and have lessons until 1.30pm. Core subjects include the sciences, maths, history and Arabic.  But language teaching is limited; unlike in Camden the children say they don't learn French, Italian or Business Studies.

Maths teacher Sana thinks that having computers and whiteboards makes teaching easy for teachers here in the UK. "All we have is a blackboard and chalk," she says.

She also thinks that her students work harder. "The children do work in class and I ask them different questions on one topic," she explains, "They have to do their work manually, they don't use computers."

The schools

Head teacher, Sarat Sandouka brought some of her pupils from Abu Dis Prep Co Ed School. She looks after 549 pupils who start school at age 6 and remain there until they are 15.

Emad Salah is the Head of Abu Dis Secondary School for Boys. The school has 400 pupils age 11-16. There are 45-50 pupils in each class. He thinks that science is better his school at science despite facilities in Camden being better. "We specialise in Chemistry and Physics etc. but they only do general science here."

He believes that pupils are better behaved in his school and describes classrooms here as chaotic. "It's very noisy. We have better discipline. Teachers have the support of the government in the classroom."

You can listen to an interview with the children from Abu Dis on Outlook on the BBC World Service. Outlook is a daily magazine programme featuring personal stories from around the world. You can listen to it on the BBC World Service website.

Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East is at the British Museum until September 2006.

Further resources:
CBBC Newsround - guide to the middle east
BBC News - Israel and the Palestinians
Take a look at the World Service News pages online in Arabic