Number of Arab employees: 118 → 4.8%

Issue:

Five Year Plan for Arab Education

§ In July 1999, a decision was reached to implement the Ben-Peretz Commission Plan for closing the gaps in Arab and Druze citizens’ education. According to the Plan, the Ministry of Education will invest 50 million NIS annually, over five years.

§ The Minister of Education decided to implement the stated policy of affirmative action in Arab education, in order to attempt to close the existing gaps in Arab education as compared to Jewish education. Arab education should receive, therefore, resources proportionally greater than their percentage in the overall population.

Among other things, the Five Year Plan includes:

Pre-school education law: 37% of the budget for pre-school education in 1999-2000 will be designated for the Arab local municipalities.

Construction budget: 29.5% of this year’s overall budget for building new classrooms will be earmarked for Arab education.

Special care teaching hours: only 18% of this budget was directed to Arab education.

Despite the advances made with regard to special care teaching hours in comparison with previous years, this matter has not yet been adequately addressed within the Ministry’s affirmative action policy framework.

Special Care Teaching Hours in Arab Education

The intervention plan is divided into various areas, most of them dealing in the strengthening of skills, and improvement of academic achievement. Within the framework of the plan, a section titled “Additional Areas of Activity” is presented, which includes the topic “Culture and Identity”.

No budget was allocated for this program for the 1999-2000 school year. For the 2000-2001 school year, only 500,000 NIS was allocated. This sum constitutes 7.9% of the budget earmarked for “Additional Areas of Activity”, and only 1% of the entire Five Year Plan budget annually.

Generally, the Five-Year Plan deals at length with the problems of academic achievement and the physical conditions of learning. Without diminishing the value of these goals, it would appear that the internal distribution of the budget within the Plan should be changed, and greater resources directed to the topic of “Culture and Identity” for educators and students. This topic has the potential of becoming the foundation for historic reform, and may even contribute to renewed stability in relations between Arab citizens and their Jewish counterparts, and with the State. “Culture and Identity” focused education must be given a central position in the Plan. Placing it on the periphery may undermine the Plan’s achievements.

It can be said that in 1999 progress has been made in the Ministry of Education with regard to educational services provided to Arab citizens. After fifty-two years of neglect, Arab education needs are being recognized and responded to seriously with efforts for improvement.

It is important, however, to emphasize that the Five Year Plan is not enough in itself and serves only to bridge the huge gap created over five decades. The damage caused by this gap and neglect cannot easily be rectified. Therefore, the Ministry of Education must not be tempted by improvements that will be reflected mainly in statistics. It must turn to implementation of a deep and basic change, because in addition to the significant growth in the construction budget, rehabilitation is required for a community severely damaged in terms of its values, and its social and political life. The Ministry of Education has the power to assist in this and it can be achieved if the Ministry first acknowledges these circumstances.