Ibrahim: One of the best English speakers at the EC: Graduated in English Literature in 2009, he applied for a position as a teacher with the Ministry of Education and was offered a job after successfully passing the selection exam! That, in itself, says a lot about him as it is fairly rare to work in public education straight after your studies in Palestine.  

He is now a high school teacher and also works at the EC as a personal Arabic teacher. He has shown amazing results with his students. Recently, in just 1 month, Jasmijn his latest student is practically fluent.  When asked why he studied literature, he says: “I love English Literature and have always done so. I love the language and want to speak it to the best of my abilities.” How about teaching, was it always a dream of his? “Yes. I believe teaching with a bit “T” is a sacred profession, it is an honour and a duty to lead people in the right path” he says humbly.

“Also, and very importantly teaching was the profession of the prophets. Applied to modern days and to our country, teaching is our only weapon. One of my students at the EC told me about an English expression: “Those who can do, those who can´t teach” It is a shame that society minimises the importance of education and the quality of teachers. Wasn´t it Nelson Mandela who said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.

Ibrahim says “For me, In Public education, the challenges we have are to try and change the traditional ways of teaching, to bring modernity and efficient ways of learning for our students whilst recognizing and respecting our strong values and culture. Here, we have similar issues to many other Public Education system: crowded classes, low wages, restrictions on creativity” When asked what he is most proud of regarding his job, he says: “Seeing my students happy and succeeding in University. Now and them, I have old students who come back and see me to thank me for my work with them, that is the best gift one can make a teacher. To be remembered as someone who has helped better the condition of this people/youth through knowledge.”

As for his work at the EC, he says “It is very gratifying not least because the Center gives teacher the freedom to be creative and initiate extra-curricular activities as tools to learn languages. For example, I sometimes cook with my students if we are learning food vocabulary or if I feel that we need a break from some hard classes.  We try and get away from tedious grammar classes and focus on languages as a medium of conversation. We want students to understand the importance of expressing themselves in a different language. Sitting quietly and not moving for hours is really not what we encourage our students to do. On the contrary, we want them to be “positively noisy”.

I have travelled to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, Qatar. I hope to travel to English-speaking countries in fact my dream is to get a scholarship in the UK or US perhaps to study PR. Unfortunately, there are many hurdles for me to do so, not least the cost and selection process. “You see I have financial responsibilities with regards to my family so it is not exactly simple.” But little by little, I am getting there.” In his typical modest and understated fashion, he mentions winning 2 competitions: One won him a scholarship for a recognized proficiency certificate in Teaching English (PCIALT). The other one, won him the TOEFL (over 100 other teachers participated in the competition and 12 won including Ibrahim) and a 4-month intensive English course in Ramallah.

His future hopes and dreams? “I would like to have even deeper and meaningful exchanges with my students and be closer to my community. I have taught primary to high school so the next logical step for me would be University teaching. That would be really great!

The other big dream is to study abroad in an English or US university, in´shallah (god willing). I believe in myself, I will make it happen!