The issue of education is one of major concern to the Palestinians who survived the upheavals of 1948 - the 950,000 strong community that remains within the borders of Israel. For 46 years, the Israeli authorities have used education as a means of repression and division: a tool of cooption virtually without parallel in the recent history of the Palestinian minority. Bill Farren-Price, from the Committee of Educational Guidance for Arab Students in Haifa, reports on the situation.
Arab students in Israel are educated in a separate, unequal system, which is grossly under-resourced when compared to the Jewish streams. More importantly, curricula and examinations are developed and administered through the (Israeli) Ministry of Education without Arab control or even influence. In parallel with the situation of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, until recently Palestinians have had no control over the content and methods of their children's education, and, in the past twenty years, the gaps in educational provision between Arabs and Jews have widened further.
In the 1980's, Dr. Mohammed Habiballah, Chairperson of the follow-up Committee on Education in the Arab Sector, caused a storm in Israel when he published a survey revealing that 50% of Arab students in elementary schools in Israel did not understand what they read. In a recent paper, Habiballah again pointed out the 'results of 45 years of neglect' and the fact that 'administrators of the educational system have only recently begun to realize that there is a problem called 'Arab education in Israel'. In an interview in Ha'aretz newspaper in 1994, he said that dropout rates among the Arab population (55% in 1992) are ten times higher than that of the Jewish sector, and occur in particular just before matriculation. Only 14.7% of Arab students succeeded in passing the high school matriculation exam in 1993, as compared to 37.5% of the Jewish students. The reasons Habiballah gives for these alarming statistics are the lack of special education for Arab students, overcrowded classrooms, and what he calls 'drop-out directors', who, to ensure high scores in matriculation exams, discourage weaker students from continuing their studies (*1). Moreover, Arab high school students are not included in 'second chance', a tutoring program designated for students lacking only three exams to graduate in development cities and poor neighborhoods.
A recent publication on Arab education in Israel highlighted the budgetary discrepancies between the Arab and Israeli sectors (*2). Despite assurances from Labor and Meretz ministers, these discrepancies have still not been rectified. In 1993-1994, Arab schools received only 15.5% of the total of newly built classrooms, although Arab pupils make up 20% of the total elementary school system. (*3) Arab children go to school only five days per week, as compared to six days for Jewish children.
With that in mind, it is perhaps all the more disturbing that the innate inequality of the system takes root in the kindergarten stage. A study of mixed kindergarten schools in Jaffa showed that Arab parents were prepared to pay the heavy price of sacrificing their children's Arab identities for the sake of enrolling them in Jewish kindergartens (which are better equipped and run than their state-run counterparts). Commenting on these mixed Jewish kindergartens, Asus remarks that 'The identity of the Palestinian child is annihilated. Nothing belongs to him; not the language, not the stories that are read to him, not the history and the collective memory which constitute a considerable part of the curriculum.' (*4) Yet the option of sending children to Arab kindergartens is hardly any better since they are situated in sub-standard buildings, with little equipment, under-qualified teachers and a poor level of spoken Arabic. It is sobering to consider that for Arab children on the very threshold of their education, the system so palpably fails to address their needs.
Arab students in Israeli universities also suffer through lack of opportunity and continuous discrimination. The statistics of university entrance reflect the first problem. Of Arab students applying to university in 1993, 48.1% were successful, as compared to 82% of Jewish students. There are several academic problems specific to Arab students. According to research carried out at Haifa University, 54% of Arab students say that they struggle with English language texts, while only 19% of Jewish students do. The fact that all students must study in Hebrew (even Arabic is taught through Hebrew) while all Arab students have up to that point studied in Arabic, adds further complications to the learning process. Moreover, there is no real future for Arab citizens of Israel. Even if a student obtains a BA, the only work available is in construction, or other low paid, labor intensive sectors, or in the teaching professions. Finally, since the collapse of the National Union of Arab Students in 1988 owing to lack of funding from the Arab political parties there has been no national membership group that could effectively lobby on behalf of Arab university students.
Arab teachers have traditionally only been granted positions in government schools as a result of security clearance. As a professional body, they have not been inclined to fight for increases in resources or changes in curricula because to do so would have meant risking their jobs. So until recently, few have been prepared to rock the boat. However, where teachers and the Arab political parties have failed to bring about improvement, students themselves have been more successful. Initiatives taken by students in high schools and universities have resulted in significant changes in the education system.
The Committee for Educational Guidance for Arab Students (a voluntary membership organization established in 1990) has succeeded in changing some aspects of government education policy through successful lobbying work. It has opened the debate on higher education conditions for Arab students, and in the process has helped to bring about changes in policy on scholarships, preparatory year courses (mechina) and the Arabic psychometric exam. The Committee targets students at secondary school as well as those attending institutions of higher education. Volunteers, many of whom are students at Haifa University, give lectures and advise on career development, and study options at the higher level. The Committee also provides housing, and supplementary courses and runs cultural events. This process of self-help, with the cooperation of volunteer students or recent graduates, is very positive in a society where local activism has traditionally been prevented by the state authorities.
The Committee has also helped to establish student groups outside the Haifa area: at Sakhnin and Arrabe in the Galilee, and in Ramle and Lod. Those groups of students activists have spent residential weekends in the Committee's building in Haifa, learning how to create and manage their own groups, and can now in turn deal with their local education agendas. One of the strengths of this system is that it creates strong links between the home town or village and the Arab student body, links which strengthen Palestinian society and its struggle for equal rights within the state.
Another successful project was initiated two years ago by al-Baqa Cultural Center in the Northern Galilee village of Majd al-Krum. The Mother's School represents a successful attempt to empower women, the family, and indeed the whole community in developing the educational process in the village. Mothers, who dropped out of the education system and who want to advance their children's achievement in school, study Arabic reading and writing as well as mathematics for eight hours a week for three months. They then help their own and others' children with their school work.
However, these are initiatives thacan deal with only a tiny proportion of the widespread problems facing Palestinian-Israelis. Decades of neglect and under-resourcing have led to inertia among teachers, parents and students. Applying pressure to improve the Arab education system and to provide greater access for Arab students at the higher level is an important task in itself. The struggle to attain the right to education can also be seen as an essential part of the struggle of Palestinians in Israel to gain recognition as a national minority. Self-help by Arab students for Arab students forms a necessary part of this process.
*1. This paragraph is an abbreviated version of an article that appeared in 'The Other Front' in November 1994. *2. The Additional Factor: Arab Education in Israel and the Mothers' School, Majd al-Krum, by Hadas Lahav, Hanitzotz/A-Sharara Publishing House, December 1994. Information regarding this book has been taken from 'A woman's place' by John Tyler in the Jerusalem Times, January 26 1995. *3. Statistics from Ministry of Education. *4. All Children in Jaffa are Equal - If They Are Called Tali or Dani, Ronit Chacham, an Interview with Nawal Asus in News from Within, Vol. XI No. 3, pp. 7-9.
Elaine Clark
Educational Network, POB 66, Ramallah, West Bank
tel: 02 995 6230/fax: 02 995 6231 e-mail: eclark@ednet.birzeit.edu