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Haredi education and Israel's future - will elections bring change?

The state invests NIS 4.4 billion in ultra-Orthodox education, and 84% of the boys studying in ultra-Orthodox post-primary schools are at in institutions where there are no core curricular studies.

10/12/2020 18:04

Tags: Haredi education ·  Jerusalem ·  Ministry of Education ·  Shas ·  UTJ ·  core curriculum

Ultra-Orthodox boys at school

A few months ago, the State Comptroller of Israel published his annual report. One of the chapters dealt with ultra-Orthodox education, and some of the numbers from it lend support to the complementary and disturbing picture, which has been being painted for years by Prof. Dan Ben David, the economist from Tel Aviv University, who founded and manages the Shoresh Institution [see below].

464,000 Israeli students study in the ultra-Orthodox education system in Israel. They represent about 30% of the total number of students studying in Hebrew primary education (that is, not the Arabs). This percentage is growing. The state invests NIS 4.4 billion in ultra-Orthodox education, and 84% of the boys studying in ultra-Orthodox post-primary schools are at in institutions where there are no core curricular studies. Educational institutions do not pass on complete information about their educational staffs to the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry does not have complete data on teachers who teach 76% of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox students. Only 13% of boys are eligible for a matriculation certificate upon graduation. Ultra-Orthodox students study at about 6,600 schools, operated and managed by about 1,000 different ultra-Orthodox organizations.

These schools operate without any licenses, without safety checks, and without even minimal supervision. There is no orderly documentation on them. They represent an illegal phenomenon, which has been going on for many years, and which the authorities refrain from dealing with.

Hiddush, with its limited resources, works to change this reality, and to address even more serious aspects, which were not included in the State Comptroller's report. This month, the Supreme Court rejected an attempt by the state and the Jerusalem municipality to reject once again its response to Hiddush’s petition regarding tens of thousands of students who study in ultra-Orthodox schools that are not included in these statistics, for they are not reported to the Ministry of Education at all. These schools operate without any licenses, without safety checks, and without even minimal supervision. There is no orderly documentation on them. They represent an illegal phenomenon, which has been going on for many years, and which the authorities refrain from dealing with.

Therefore, the words of Shoresh Institution and of Prof. Dan Ben David, which were published this month are of particular importance. They were published along with visual presentations of the discrepencies between the various educational sectors today and along with a forecast for 2065, based upon estimates by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics. To this day, politicians on the right, left, and center have refused to take this phenomenon seriously. They have been willing to abandon the future of the State of Israel in exchange for the votes of the ultra-Orthodox parties, which demand state funding for ultra-Orthodox education without state interference and without even implenting the core curricular, which is required by law.

In the run-up to the next election, the question arises again: Will the next election results bring the necessary turning point? This will not happen without a public awakening, nor without repeated and courageous exposure of these data and many like them, nor without legal and political confrontation with their devastating consequences for the future of the State of Israel:

Source: SHORESH

“Imagine Israel’s future. What will it look like in just two generations? Already today, roughly half of Israel’s children receive a third world education – and they belong to the fastest growing population subgroups. What kind of jobs will these children be able to hold down as adults in a global, competitive economy? How will they be able to carry the burden of supporting modern health and welfare systems – or the first-world defense capabilities that ensure Israel’s continued physical existence? When just 20 percent of today’s population shoulder 92 percent of the Israel’s income tax revenue – an unprecedented share in the developed world – will the more educated and skilled among the country’s young people increasingly opt for higher earning jobs and a better quality of life elsewhere? Will our children and grandchildren be among those who choose not to remain?” [Shoresh Institution, Nov. 30, 2020]