Taybeh Latin School

At the time of the foundation of the Latin mission in 1863 there were only about 60 Catholics. The remainder of the population were Greek Orthodox whose Patriarch had already established a school in the village. The first parish priest Father Philip Brook, sent by the Latin Patriarch, Mgr Valerga, started his mission by building a small presbytery. This served as his living accommodation, a school and chapel, which he soon replaced by building a small church. His successors continued to enlarge the church and constructed a playground encircled by a protective wall.

During World War Two, the Turks had closed the school. In 1945 Father Silvio Brosalin was appointed parish priest of Taybeh. Because of the increased number of children who wanted to join the school, he decided to build another floor. When completed this provided classrooms for boys on the ground floor with classrooms for girls above. The nuns, who had arrived in the village to teach the girls, also occupied part of this new floor.

Father Silvio also established the first kindergarten in the village. When he left in 1975 his successor, Fr John Sansour, was able to persuade Patriarch Beltritti of the necessity to build a new school to cope with the continuingly increasing numbers.With the generous contributions of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher the construction of a new building was completed in 1978. Qualified teachers were employed to educate the children.

The school consisted then of classrooms on two floors with playgrounds for sporting activities. The curriculum since then started to cover stages of learning from Kindergarten through Elementary to Secondary Grade 12 providing for both scientific and arts streams.

In 2003, with the generous help of World Vision, the Diocese of Rimini and other caring friends, a new annex was added to provide new classrooms, a science laboratory, a new room for the library and new offices for the Principal and the administrative staff.

Today the school is home for a student body of more than 400 pupils, with about a third being Muslims and two thirds Christians. The Principal has a staff of around 30 qualified teachers, males and females. The school not only provides education for the boys and girls of Taybeh but also for children from the surrounding nearby villages. The extra curricular activities cover a variety of interests. The annual school exhibition of science and arts, educational journeys, different cultural and sporting competitions help the students to grow mentally, socially, physically and spiritually.

Source: www.latin-schools.org.