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Closed petition PE1879: Provide an accessible and professionally developed learning and teaching resource on Israel and Palestine
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to acknowledge the right of Scotland's pupils to a bias-free education on the topic of Israel-Palestine by:
* ensuring Education Scotland hosts an accessible and professionally developed learning and teaching resource on its national intranet service
* re-establishing a ‘strategic review group’ to oversee any revision of the original resource developed in 2016.
Previous action taken
We have engaged directly with the Cabinet Secretary for Education to re-instate the Israel and Palestine learning and teaching resource on the national intranet for education (GLOW). Following extensive enquiries, aided by FOI requests and direct communication with Education Scotland and the Scottish Government, it appears that both organisations have isolated themselves from the resource, despite originally leading on this work.
Background information
In 2015, news reports raised concerns that some Scottish schools were issuing homework based on inappropriate teaching and learning resources of Palestinian history and rights.
In response, the then Minister for Learning, Science and Scotland's Languages expressed their commitment “to support high quality education that appreciates equality and diversity within Scotland”. The solution was to establish a working group to develop a teaching and learning resource on the Palestine and Israel conflict.
In March 2017, Education Scotland confirmed that the resource had been quality assured and was available on GLOW. However, within two weeks of this confirmation, the resource was taken off the public area of GLOW without explanation.
The resource is no longer hosted on GLOW and is now published on the Educational Institute of Scotland website. I am concerned that there is a lack of commitment by the Scottish Government to make available an accessible learning resource on this very important issue.
This petition was considered by the Scottish Parliament
1,210 signatures