The State (and non-State) of Palestinian Education Development (original) (raw)

[This paper was submitted to complete my Bachelor's Thesis Requirement in my final year of college.] This research follows the development of the Palestinian education system in the West Bank from the creation of the national Ministry of Education in the 1993 Oslo Accords. Since its creation, the Ministry of Education has cooperated and competed with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and non-governmental organizations to provide education to the territory. The interaction between those two types of education providers—state and non-state—is an issue that ranges beyond Palestine. The advantages and disadvantages of having an internally divided education system in the West Bank are discussed in this research. The main advantages of non-state entities are their political and financial neutrality in the face of political instability. The main disadvantages of non-state entities are their potential to undermine the state through funding diversion, representation of foreign instead of nationalistic interests, and their creation of unequal school performance across the sector. The findings are then put into the context of the controversy of long-term humanitarian intervention. The ultimate conclusion argued is that non-state entities have a lot to offer to Palestine and other developing countries, though their existence is problematic and would do well to take into account local desires.