The Raising Boys’ Achievement Project - West Bank

This project is about raising boys’ achievement at the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) School in Nablus, Hebron and Jerusalem area. This project explores why boys achieve poorly in school and why there is a gap between boys and girls in the same subject areas, why are girls better than boys, what are the reasons, and how can we help the students? The analysis is based on statistic gathered by the UNRWA results in 2011/2012. There are many reasons for gender differences in education. We will now look at reasons for why girls improve more than boys in the UNRWA School. This can be divided up into external factors and internal factors. The external factors come from outside the education system, such as home and family background and wider society. The internal factors are within schools and the education system, such as the effect of school policies. The project aims to raise the educational achievement of Palestinian boys in UNRWA schools. The focus of the project will be to undertake the interventions found and decided upon for the target groups in each school, but most likely interventions would be: the provision of strong incentives to improve attendance and ensure discussions on gender in education with a special focus on boys, inclusive education, learner-friendly environments, strengthening counselling and guidance, and facilitating an inter-sectorial approach to gender equality in education. If pursued, these activities will hopefully have a positive influence, ensuring that all children, boys and girls alike, can pursue their right to education.