(This page was updated June 22nd, 2009, some links are still under construction)
HILA's Main Activities
While HILA's mandate has remained the same over the years, our projects develop and evolve in response to conditions in the field and as a result of regular evaluation. HILA's main activities are focused on:
Private Consultation
HILA is contacted each year by more than 400 parents seeking advice, support, and counselling regarding children whose rights have been violated in schools and in the education system. We offer help to parents faced with:
- illegal or unjustified allocation to special education
- illegal or unjustified allocation to lower track courses and vocational schools that do not yield matriculation certificates
- illegal punitive procedures i.e. suspensions and excluding pupils from exams or social activities
- illegal psychological assessment of pupils
- forced use of Ritalin
- unqualified pedagogical staff
- unlawful parent fees
- severe material conditions and unsatisfactory sanitation of educational facilities
HILA refers parents in need, to professionals such as pedagogical, physical and psychological experts, and our staff and volunteers give them legal representation in their appeals and struggles for the rights of their children to regular education. If needed we contribute translators and mediators in Amharic and Arabic.
Further reading:
HILA’s Parent Empowerment Courses offer parents in disadvantaged communities factual information and practical tools to improve the level of education in their community and diagnose local educational problems.
Each course consists of 10 meetings of approximately 15 participants and are held nationwide in areas that are in need of higher educational quality and better matriculation rates.
The agenda of the courses deals with parent and student rights; the laws, policies, and procedures governing the educational system; the importance of active parent involvement in school affairs; and the individual learning process of their child. The courses are also designed to explain basic terms for understanding the education system, and to facilitate communication between the parents, the school and the children. This training provides parents with the skills to positively influence their children’s education.
Further reading: How Parent groups have changed their communities
Seminars
Every year HILA holds a weekend seminar about Educational Equality for Arab and Jewish Parent Groups. The weekend seminar and HILA’s one day seminars that are held throughout the year, provide activists with an essential forum for cross-community learning and solidarity by uniting parents and community activists from both the Jewish and Arab communities; social justice and community activists; Students within Law and Pedagogy; and concerned pedagogical and law professionals.
At the seminars, in-depth and updated information concerning issues of educational policy, equality and opportunity are addressed in lectures, discussions and workshops. The topics vary, but are always concrete and respond to needs that arise in the field. These fertile interactions often generate campaigns which have in the past succeeded in enforcing lasting change in Israeli educational policy and increasing parent rights and responsibilities vis-à-vis the education system.
HILA’s next weekend seminar will be held in October 2009 in Newe Shalom.
Further reading: Reports from previous seminars
Publications
HILA’s publications in Hebrew, Arabic and Amharic provide parents with pertinent, detailed information about the Israeli education system and parents' and students' rights and duties within it. More specifically they provide relevant information on issues such as the latest legislations and regulations from the Ministry of Education, parent involvement in pedagogical councils; the right to a matriculation certificate; the rights of Ethiopian students; suspension procedures; allocations processes to special education; academic schools versus vocational tracks.
The publications also include HILA’s recommendations for courses of action parents can pursue. All information leaflets are written in clear accessible language, explaining basic educational terms and simplifying legal instructions.
Further reading: HILA's Publications
HILA's Public Campaigns focus on:
- Promoting Parent Status and Involvement in the Education System especially in schools' pedagogic councils
- Promoting Information Transparency
- Models of Co-operation between parents and the Education System.
Transparency is needed as a basis for action or social change. The education system in Israel is only transparent towards educational staff and parents are usually not part of the circle of information. HILA encourages cooperation between parents and school staff through joint activities in the pedagogical council, in teacher/parent forums and through the inclusion of parent committees in shaping the education.
Further reading: