Primary Education

From nursery to sixth grade, the children in our system enjoy binational, bilingual education:

Founded in 1984, our pioneering educational system has become a model for other binational schools. Today, around one third of the students come from WASNS, the rest from 19 towns, villages and cities in the region. We ensure that a balance of around 50-50 is kept between Palestinian and Jewish children, boys and girls. That balance extends to the staff, so that children are constantly exposed to two languages and different cultures.

Primary School: In contrast with Israel’s sectarian school system, children in the WASNS primary school learn in an environment that is completely binational and bilingual. The school excels in core subjects and offers the children extracurricular classes in sports, music, technology and more. More importantly, the school nutures each and every child, while making learning a holistic, fun experience. In recent years, the pedagogic staff, together with the Ministry of Education, developed a binational curriculum called HOTAM, Education, Culture, Tradition, which is designed to nurture each child’s identity while teaching respect and appreciation for the cultures of the others.

The Language Center:  Designed to make learning language fun and advance the bilingual atmosphere of the school, the Language Center was established in 2023.

Kindergarten: Children play and learn in a bilingual atmosphere and  celebrate holidays of three religions. The kindergarten is accredited and funded by Israel’s Ministry of Education. We also provide after-hours care, paid for by parents.

Nursery: In a refurbished building on the educational campus the nursery staff cares for over 20 children each day, aged 6 mos. to almost 3 years. For children in the nursery, bilingual education can begin before they even learn to talk.

History

The idea of creating an educational framework that would express Wahat al-Salam – Neve Shalom’s ideals of coexistence and equality was born together with the community’s first children. The idea was translated into action starting in the late 1970s, when the village began to educate children at nursery and kindergarten levels.

In 1984, using recycled building materials, the village was able to construct a small building for a primary school. Initially, the school served only the dozen primary-aged children in the village. When the teachers had sufficiently developed their binational and bilingual teaching methods, the school opened its doors also to children from outside the village, and the enrolment began to grow.

While the original primary school was developed outside the mainstream school systems, today both kindergarten and primary school are fully accredited. While much of the teaching staff is on the Ministry of Education payroll, the school funds extra teaching hours for its binational, bilingual program, as well as for nature classes, and other additional classes.

A model for the future

The WASNS educational system was the first Jewish-Palestinian bilingual, binational children’s educational program in the country. It has become a model of integrated schooling, emulated in several locations where Arab and Jewish populations live side by side.

The educational staff of the school are happy to offer their expertise in the area of binational education, both in Israel and abroad.