Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Ten years ago, the young Palestinian Jihad Abu Halima went to present the idea of a project based on employing technology in the education sector to an official in the Palestinian Ministry of Education in the Gaza Strip. When he finished presenting his idea, the official replied to him: Did you come to me from space? This cannot be applied here!
Jihad (37 years old), who holds a doctorate in chemistry, refused to submit to the former official’s frustration. He grew up with extraordinary intelligence in a family led by a Palestinian farmer who used to revive his agricultural land in the Beit Lahia area in the northern Gaza Strip, immediately after every time it was bulldozed by the Israeli occupation forces.
The young man was more committed to solving the problems of education in the Gaza Strip with technology, a commitment supported by extensive experience gained from working for more than 15 years in teaching in UNRWA schools and government schools.
“My School” application for science tests
Abu Halima told Al Jazeera Net that he began his experiments in 2008 in the electronic "Najah Forums" that targeted students at an UNRWA school in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood (east of Gaza), and a student who later studied information technology helped him program it and won the Google Award in Information Security.
Then, in 2012, with personal effort, Abu Halima produced the “My School” application on mobile devices, to help middle school students pass intensive training during the science subject exam period, an initiative that was later adopted by the Al-Nayzak Foundation, which specializes in education and research in the fields of science and technology.
When he wanted to apply for the position of deputy principal of a school, he thought of a service for everyone who wanted to be promoted to a higher position, and indeed he was able to create the “learningoutcom” application, which is concerned with results-based learning, an application that benefited 1,200 people in 2016.
"Smart Matrix" for a job
Abu Halima moved on to a broader experience in the last two years, when he presented a pilot project to the Business and Technology Incubator (BTI) at the Islamic University of Gaza - which embraced his winning project along with 11 other projects - which he called “Smart Matrix” and is based on providing a service to students from different specializations. .
The project explains that it is “a platform that serves graduates by preparing them for employment tests, and teaching them how to pass the test that they will take at the end of the year by employing technology in the education sector.”
Graduates usually rely on commercial "books", many of which exploit the graduate's ignorance of employment matters, but he was keen to help them pass job exams in a guaranteed manner, as the program provides real information that addresses the graduate and understands his needs when applying for a job, so "based on the user's request himself and his needs. The project came out with a practical, serious and sophisticated idea for all graduates,” he says.
Application in the West Bank
Abu Halima points out that the application spread and reached the West Bank as well last year, and although Gaza graduates were not given the opportunity to apply for government jobs, which were limited to West Bank graduates, this did not prevent him from implementing the project, as it “broke boundaries and achieved very positive results.”
He also invested in social media pages in providing direct lectures to graduates in remote areas without the need for them to attend, so that they were linked to supervisors from companies, universities or institutions, after the supervisors underwent extensive training on the mechanism of using the live broadcast feature, and dealing positively with students’ inquiries. He also created a database for these lectures that students in all majors can benefit from.
Cooperation Award and a dream of more giving
Jihad Abu Halima recently won the Al-Taawoun Award for Distinguished Educator, which is one of the most prestigious awards at the Palestinian national level targeting young entrepreneurs, for his project “Active Learning Through E-Learning.”
Abu Halima says that the award gave him more energy for more projects related to learning through technology. He explains: “The Welfare Foundation award and its financial value aim to present the idea more clearly, and to serve all graduates from Gaza to the West Bank and then to the Arab world.”
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Achievements and Awards
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