New report sheds light on Haredim in Higher Education

A recent report by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel sheds light on another important dimension of the official statistics on Haredim in Higher Education that are so frequently cited by government officials.

29/11/2017 22:30

Tags: Haredim · higher education · labor market

Much is being written especially by spokespeople of the government and Haredi apologists about the dramatic rise in Haredim choosing to enter into higher education.

Hiddush has pointed out that the current governmental policies, while preaching the importance of acquiring higher education for Haredim actually discourage them from entering the labor market by providing them with higher stipends that depend upon them remaining in the yeshiva.

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The Taub report on Haredim in higher education [link] points to the following -

The drop-out rate of Haredi men pursuing academic degrees is a staggering 67% (compared to 33% among Haredi women).

While the numbers of Haredi students nearly tripled in six years, they are still extremely low in comparison to other segments of society.
The numbers are misleading and overstated because they include, in many instances, non-Haredi Zionist Orthodox students who studied in schools that are registered as Haredi.
Employment of Haredi men drastically dropped in recent decades from ~84% in the '70s to less than 50% today.
The drop-out rate of Haredi men pursuing academic degrees is a staggering 67% (compared to 33% among Haredi women).
A key reason for the above sad state of affairs is the lack of preparedness, particularly of Haredi men, whose educational institutions refuse to teach core curricular studies.
Even among those who reach academic degrees – according to another Taub Center report [link] - most Haredi males study either law or accounting, rather than other fields. These two fields are saturated in Israel, and these men face serious challenges in finding jobs.

This area has been a subject of Hiddush's ongoing public opinion surveys and clearly the majority of the public would like to see a drastic change, not a trickle. The public would like to see see the change in terms of the Haredi share in the labor market, and would like to see this drastic change come about -for instance- by enforcing core curricular studies in Haredi male education and conditioning state support with compliance.

82% believe that ultra-Orthodox schools should be obligated to teach core curricular studies. 72% believe that the way to enforce this is by denying funding to those that refuse to comply. [link]