Alternative Education Students Mobilize to Protect their School

Stories

Alternative Education Students Mobilize to Protect their School

When the Nasera Local Council decided to appoint a new headmaster for the Masar Association High School in July 2014, they didn’t take into account the special nature and history of the school. The Masar Association focuses on fostering a learning environment that stresses cooperation and empowers students to be active agents of change.  The school saw itself as an educational institution geared towards the local community what? and its needs. It had struggled for years to achieve its own educational and administrative independence from the Ministry of Education, including hard won legal battles to appoint its own teachers and headmasters.  When the Local Council decided to appoint a headmaster despite many public meetings with parents and the school administration on this issue, Masar decided to call for a general public meeting.

News spread among the school’s students, who became a catalyst for student action that included present and former students, and mobilized the community at large.  Students contacted the head of the Masar Association to learn more about the problem, and how they could support.  They took an active role in the public meeting, providing a brilliant example of a new empowered, proactive and participatory generation that loved their school and appreciated the values they had been taught there. As well as volunteering on a committee set up to follow up on the issue, students took the initiative to write a letter to the Head of the Local Council; while school graduates prepared a public statement, and organized a petition. They visited homes, workplaces and universities, canvassing their former classmates.  A group of 15 graduates also paid a surprise visit to the Head of the Local Council. After a 2-hour wait, he finally agreed to meet with them, and they explained why it was important for the school administration to participate in the process of picking a new headmaster. 

This situation demonstrated the leadership potential of the school graduates. It was a perfect example of how the school had succeeded in imparting to them the knowledge and skills that enabled them to successfully mobilize community action based on cooperation, dialogue and the principles of democracy.