Government Decision 3790: Informal Education in East Jerusalem: ‘Hands-On’ Laboratory

Following our publication “Informal Education as a Means of Reducing Gaps in East Jerusalem”, the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research initiated three digital workshops (‘hands-on’ laboratories) with leading professionals in the field of education in Jerusalem, to discuss the report, its findings and their implementation.

The various bodies involved in planning and implementing both formal and informal education in East Jerusalem took part in these meetings. Among them were The Ministry of Jerusalem and Heritage, The Ministry of Education, the Jerusalem Municipality’s Education Administration and the Social Culture and Sports Administration, the Department for Public Participation in East Jerusalem, as well as relevant researchers from the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research who accompany the implementation process of the government’s decision through their research. The meetings were held between April and November 2020, with the cooperation of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.

The goal: coordinating the work and building a joint strategy

The hands-on laboratory approach was chosen as the way to best coordinate all the organizations involved with conducting formal and informal education, within the framework of Government Decision 3790, to promote economic development and narrow gaps in East Jerusalem, and generate collaborative strategic discussion to define the aims and Key Performance Indicators. The many bodies involved, and the many arenas affected by informal education, presented a challenge both in synchronizing goals, and in the ability to formulate a common understanding regarding the potential impact on residents.

The first meeting: challenges of informal education in East Jerusalem

At the first meeting, the main conclusions from the Jerusalem Institute’s research regarding informal education in Israel and abroad were presented, as were and the implications arising regarding challenges for informal education in East Jerusalem. Guest speakers presented various attempts to deal with the integration of informal education into Bedouin society and in Arab settlements in the northern parts of Israel, as part of the implementation of Government Decision 922 (Hebrew).

The second meeting: setting joint goals and strategic thinking

In this meeting, the process of collaborative thinking began. This consisted of mapping all relevant parameters needed when undergoing goal-oriented processes:

• Time axis (short-term as opposed to long-term goals)
• Influence versus exposure axis (desired outcomes as opposed to desired goals)
• Participants versus infrastructure axis (participants’ goals as opposed to those for the system itself and its personnel)

The third meeting – focusing on the next five years

In this meeting we surveyed the thought processes taking place from the earliest stages; conducted joint discussions to set the goals and aims of informal education, while focusing only on the upcoming five years; taking the challenges that COVID-19 creates for the field of education as a whole, and especially to informal education, into account.

PPT – Hebrew