Documentaries

International

Secondary

Two Iraqi refugee children speak of their difficult lives

Nine-year-old Dounia and 10-year-old Ahmed give an insight into their lives after being forced to leave Iraq and move to Syria in order to flee the continued violence in Iraq. Ahmed talks about how he misses his father, who was killed back in Iraq, and of how well he has settled into his new school, where he has made both Syrian and Iraqi friends. An unsettled life has resulted in Dounia missing over a year of school. Her parents do not have jobs, with her 16-year-old brother being the family's only breadwinner. Dounia talks about the difficulties of missing school and being put in a class with much younger children, including her six-year-old sister.

Iraqi Children Speak

Teenage Iraqi refugees talk of their hopes for the future

Iraqi teenagers, who are living in Syria as refugees, talk about their current lives and their hopes for the future as they adjust to life in a new country. With many Iraqi adults struggling to find work in Syria, 16-year-old Seif talks about his life working in a cafe as the sole breadwinner of his family. He feels he now has little chance of training to be an engineer, his ambition when he was younger. The programme also meets children who do attend school and sees them discuss what it feels like to be a refugee, how they cope with being put in classes with younger children, their negative feelings about the foreign troops in Iraq, and their hopes for the future.

Iraqi Teenagers Speak

Following the difficulties of daily life in two West Bank schools

The daily struggles of two schools in the West Bank, King Talal Boys' School and Hajja Rushda Girls' School, display the pressures of life in Palestine under Israeli occupation. The optimism of a new term is quickly forgotten as a teachers' strike and problems with angry parents, desperate for places for their children, quickly develop for the respective heads. In a city plagued by frequent fierce street battles, the head of the boys' school is worried about the safety of his pupils as many have been killed and imprisoned in recent years.

New Term

Pupils and teachers journey outside Nablus' checkpoints

The teachers and students of two Palestinian schools get the chance to travel beyond the checkpoints that surround Nablus. Until now, like thousands of other paperless Palestinians, travel has been impossible for Shifa al-Khatib, a science teacher at the girls' school. This lack of identity papers means she has not seen her family in Jordan for ten years. When at last she gets the necessary papers, she undergoes a long and very emotional journey as she is finally reunited with her family. Meanwhile, back in Nablus, the lower school students' eagerly awaited exam results determine whether they will go up to the next grade, or have to repeat the year.

Return to Nablus - Beyond School

The two Palestinian schools face exam pressure

In this return to the two Palestinian schools, tension builds as the end-of-year exam season gets underway. Straight away Da'es Abu Kishik, headteacher of King Talal boys school, and his staff are arguing over the latest directive from the Education Ministry concerning exam timetables. The students too are feeling the pressure. Osaid Salami spent many months in an Israeli jail earlier in the year and this gap in his education means the exams are even more of a challenge for him. Meanwhile, at Hajja Rushda girl's school there is a different kind of pressure as students like Lina Haddad push to achieve top marks. All this amid over-crowded classes and yet more students imprisoned by the Israeli army, show the day to day struggles faced by a school living under an occupation.

Return to Nablus - Exam Time

The students must take their important final year exams

It is time to follow the final year students of the two schools through the most important part of their academic lives, the aptly named Path to the Future public exams. Masar Sa'ed is hoping to redeem her year. Her grades have been suffering because she was the only family member allowed to visit her brother, Marwan while he was held in an Israeli prison. At the boys' school, Tariq has also had a bumpy year. He has come back from near expulsion to turn over a new leaf and now hopes to study law at university. Meanwhile, Zed and Mahmood are two students with very different attitudes to their finals. All need good grades and they all face difficult questions about their future; whether to remain and study in Nablus; to study abroad; or start work. It is an emotional time that will determine what they do with the rest of their lives.

Return to Nablus - The Path to the Future

Two schools in Palestine cope with daily life under occupation

This powerful film documents the daily struggles of two schools in the West Bank, providing a unique insight into the pressures of life in Palestine under Israeli occupation. It's the start of a new term at King Talal Boys' School and Hajja Rushda Girls' School, but academic life for the students and teachers of Nablus is constantly interrupted by the harsh realities of life under occupation. Watch as both schools struggle with teachers' strikes and constant overcrowding caused by influxes of children from nearby refugee camps. These stresses are in addition to the relentless safety fears created by the army raids and fierce street battles that take place only metres from the school gates.

The Whole Story

Pressure mounts for the two West Bank schools

The term continues in this unique series following the daily lives of two schools in Palestine as they struggle with the extraordinary pressures of life under occupation. The schools are still struggling with teachers' issues despite the strike being halted, and the situation with over-crowded classrooms is exacerbated when the boys' school is landed with 42 more pupils. Meanwhile, the strain increases for students Masar and Osaid, as both attempt to write essays while being caught up in the Israeli prison system, and there is trouble brewing as the families settle down for Iftar celebrations.

Under Pressure

External events bring chaos and tragedy to the West Bank schools

In this final episode, we see how events occuring outside of the two West Bank schools can have a huge impact on the lives of both teachers and pupils. One month into an already stressful term and the two schools, King Talal boys' school and Hajja Rushda girls' school, are having to deal with the day-to-day realities of living under an occupation while attempting to teach and learn. A raid by the Israeli army on a nearby refugee camp brings chaos to the schools as well as tragedy for one of the students.

Under Siege

A unique struggle for education in Uganda's Karamoja region

Find out how, after a troubled history, the Karamoja region of north eastern Uganda is finally embracing education for its young people. Karamoja has always rejected formal education, preferring to follow traditional elders who symbolically buried a pen in 1942 and ordered the "death" of education In 1995, the pen was finally unearthed and a community run programme, Alternative Basic Education for Karamoja, was devised to engage the pastoral society in eduction. This documentary tells the extraordinary story of the development of education in the Karamoja, the value of which is now being realised across the region.

Professional Development for Quality Teaching

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