The CEC launches the 2017 elections awareness in schools project

The CEC, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, has launched today the elections awareness in schools activity funded by the European Union. The project targets 9000 ninth graders in 100 schools in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip through mock elections activities as part of civic education curriculum. The first phase of the project involved training of 105 civic education teachers in both the WB and GS over ten days. The teachers have acquired the electoral knowledge on election phases and the skills to organize mock elections for their students. In a later stage, teachers will conduct mock elections over six class periods representing the six phases of elections: registration, nomination, campaigning, voting, counting, and announcement of results. The whole electoral process will be conducted by students themselves under the supervision of teachers. It should be indicated that this activity is a recurring project the CEC has been implementing since 2008 in various schools as part of CEC’s electoral awareness activities targeting youth to increase election and democratic awareness among the young generations and encourage their future electoral participation. Up till this date, the number of beneficiary students targeted in previous exercises has reached 40,000.