JERICHO, April 13, 2017 (WAFA) – In a step seen as acquainting young Palestinians with the Palestinian pound, which was the Palestinian currency until Israel’s creation in 1948 and the Palestinian dispersion that resulted from it, Jericho school are set to start a project in which students will be able to use the pound to buy stuff from the school’s kiosk.

Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), who lives in Jericho and represents it in the Palestinian Legislative Council, announced the launch of this project on Thursday during a meeting with local education officials and school principals.

The Ministry of Education’s project, named The Smart Student’s Shop: Excel and Buy with the Palestinian Pound, allows students up to grade six who do well in school to earn a pound from their teacher for each good work, which they can use to buy whatever they want from the kiosk.

Erekat said that the aim of this project is to foster academic achievement among students and to raise their national awareness through the use of the historic Palestinian currency.

The adoption of this project in Jericho schools is a pioneering step that will be followed in other schools throughout the West Bank.

Erekat expressed hope that the pound will one day return to become the official Palestinian currency following the creation of the independent state of Palestine.

M.N./M.K.