Jaber Abu Al Kian
District Supervisor, Ministry of Education
Jaber Abu Alkian is the district supervisor of the Social and Youth Administration of the Ministry of Education’s Southern District. In this capacity, he is responsible for non-formal education, social education, and social engagement in Bedouin Arab society. He also forges partnerships with government ministries and civil society organizations to promote values-driven programs and content, and to advance Bedouin Arab society by creating equal opportunity, increasing social mobility, and developing civil society. He also coordinates the Etgarim program for developing leadership in schools in the Arab sector in the Southern District, and leads scouting programs in schools and programs for promoting coexistence in the Negev, in which are conducted in partnership with AJEED-NISPED. Jaber has worked in education for some 25 years, 10 of in which were spent as a middle-school teacher and management member in the Tel Sheva local council, where he introduced “field, nation, and society” (“Shelach”) studies and land of Israel studies to the curriculum. He was involved in setting up 14 branches of youth movements and 35 branches of the AJEEC youth organization in the region, and is a member of the AJEEC-NISPED steering committee and of the board of directors of the Tamar Center, which promotes STEM studies in Bedouin Arab society. In addition, he was one of the initiators of the idea of founding the Desert Stars leadership center for Bedouin youth. Jaber is also involved in social improvement campaigns and in initiatives to resolve conflict and promote tolerance in Bedouin Arab society and in Israeli society in general. In the past, he volunteered in prisons and in programs for prisoner rehabilitation and empowerment, at the regional emergency response center, on the Hura community COVID committee, and at Edy’s House – a community support center for children with cancer. Jaber holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geography and environmental development, as well as a teaching diploma, all from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and holds a doctorate in educational administration from Yarmouk University in Jordan. He has lectured at Kaye Academic College of Education for the last four years. He grew up in the unrecognized Bedouin settlement of Umm Al-Hiran, and now lives in the Hura local council.