Ramallah Friends Schools
The Ramallah Friends Schools are two private schools founded by Quakers in the city of Ramallah, in the West Bank.[1] The Friends Girls' School was inaugurated in 1869; the construction of the Friends Boys' School began in 1901 and the school opened in 1918.[2] The Schools were run by American Quakers.[3][4] The schools are now co-educational and divided into Senior and Junior sections; a Meeting House was built in 1910. The Swift Building, located in the upper School and named after Sara Swift of New England, was made the home of the Friends International Center in Ramallah after restoration work was completed.[5] During the First World War the Boys' School was commandeered by Turkish troops for use as a hospital during Allenby's assault on Palestine.[2]
| Ramallah Friends School | |
|---|---|
 Middle School Building in Upper Campus 2016 | |
| Location | |
| Information | |
| Type | Private |
| Motto | "Nurturing young leaders and inspiring academic excellence" |
| Established | 1869 |
| Chairman | Omar Tesdell |
| Head of School | Rania Maayah |
| Grades | KG - 12 |
| Gender | Co-educational |
| Enrollment | 1569 students |
| Website | Official website |
Background
The Friends Girls' School was originally opened as “The Girls' Training Home of Ramallah” and was renamed "Friends Girls' School" in 1919. Elihu Grant was the principal between 1901 and 1903. Both the Boys' and Girls' Friends Schools were designed and built by Dahoud Saah of Ramallah. The best school in Palestine [6] The Lower School serves grades Pre-Kindergarten to fifth grade; the Upper School serves grades six to twelve.[7]
Location
The Lower School campus and kindergarten (Formerly Friends Girls' School) is located near the centre of the Old City of Ramallah on Hal Tabqa Sadik Street. The Lower School campus is located at 31°54′13.28″N 35°11′57.54″E The upper School campus (Formerly Friends Boys' School) is located along al Nahdha Street, al-Bireh[8] The Upper School campus is located at 31.9054°N 35.2081°E
Curriculum
The Friends Schools have offered, in both Arabic and English,[9] various educational curricula. As of 2011, they only offer the IB curriculum, optionally IB-no exam for those who wish to take the American SAT examination, but those students will have to apply through the AMIDEAST as it is no longer provided to students. The schools used to offer local governmental examinations: ‘Tawjihi’. The school was certified to provide the IB curriculum in 2001 by the International Baccalaureate organization.
During the first Intifada the Friends School was closed by the Israeli authorities—as was the case with all schools in Ramallah—during the years of 1988 and 1989, but it was reopened after the intifada.[10]
Swift House
The Friends International Center regularly hosts meetings with other NGOs such as the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and the Christian Peacemaker Teams.[11]
Notable alumni
- Hanan Ashrawi, politician and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council
- Jaweed al-Ghussein, civil engineer and philanthropist
- Amaney Jamal, dean of the Princeton School of public and international affairs
- Rami Kashou, fashion designer and first runner-up on Season 4 of Project Runway
- Widad Kawar, folklorist of Palestinian costume
- Ibrahim Muhawi, professor, folklorist, translator and writer
- Serene Husseini Shahid, writer and historian of Palestinian arts and culture
- Farouk Shami, CEO of Farouk Systems, Inc., an American hair care products company; 2010 Democratic candidate for Governor of Texas in the United States
- Raja Shehadeh, attorney, author, and activist; founder of the human rights group Al-Haq
- Khaldoun Al Tabari, Jordanian Businessman
References
- M. Mukarram Ahmed, Muzaffar Husain Syed (2005) Encyclopaedia of Islam Anmol Publications PVT. LTD. ISBN 81-261-2339-7 p 249
- Michael Dumper, Bruce E. Stanley and Janet L. Abu-Lughod (2007) Cities of the Middle East and North Africa: A Historical Encyclopedia ABC-CLIO, ISBN 1-57607-919-8 p 310
- Manuela Marín and Randi Deguilhem (2002) Writing the Feminine: Women in Arab Sources I.B.Tauris, ISBN 1-86064-697-2 pp 59-60
- "Sa’ed Atshan, Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique (New Texts Out Now)." Jadaliyya. 22 December 2021.
- Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends Archived 2009-03-25 at the Wayback Machine Report on the Friends International Committee Consultation in Ramallah March 4 to 13, 2005
- "Friends School Ramallah/al Bireh". Archived from the original on October 29, 2011.
- "RFS At A Glance". www.rfs.edu.ps. Retrieved 2022-07-13.
- "Friends School Ramallah/al Bireh".
- "Friends United Meeting: World Missions - Ramallah, Palestine". Archived from the original on 2007-01-19. Retrieved 2007-01-09.
- John Daniel, World University Service, Frederick De Vlaming, Nigel Hartley (1993) Academic Freedom 2: A Human Rights Report Zed Books, ISBN 1-85649-219-2 p 81
- Ramallah Quakers Archived 2009-05-15 at the Wayback Machine Friends International Center in Ramallah January - February 2009 Newsletter (Vol. III No. 1)