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June 18, 2004/Sivan 29 5764, Vol. 56, No.39
Needs of Arab educationNECHEMIA MEYERSProf. Ismael Abu-Saad has a special responsibility as the only non-Jew on the 18-member Dovrat Commission, which has just submitted a preliminary report on the reform of Israeli education. The commission was established after tests showed that Israeli students, once ranked among the best in the world in mathematics and other key subjects, have fallen now way down the list.This situation can be changed, Abu-Saad and his colleagues hope, by a series of reforms, the most important of which are measures to increase the status and salaries of teachers. The commission has yet to tackle the specific problems of Arab-language schools. Last year, when a national exam in mathematics was given to eighth graders, the failure rate for Hebrew-language schools was about 50 percent, contrasted with 75 percent for Arabic-language schools. This significant difference surely is linked to the fact that the expenditure per pupil in Jewish schools is one-third higher than in Arab schools. "The situation in Bedouin areas is even worse," says Abu-Saad, himself a Bedouin. "There are dozens of unrecognized towns, which lack basic facilities, including schools. So children there have to travel many kilometers to reach a classroom." Asked about the education of Bedouin girls, which once was of very little interest to their families, Abu-Saad said this is no longer the case. Ben-Gurion University's Bedouin Center for Studies and Development, which he helped found, has played a key role in bringing 200 Bedouin women to the university, 27 of whom are studying for a master's degree and three for a doctorate. "If government scholarships were made available, there would be a thousand of them at Ben-Gurion," he declared. Bedouin place an increasing emphasis on quality of life, which is far easier to achieve when there are two wage earners in the family, Abu-Saad said. While acknowledging that Bedouin families are typically two or three times larger than Jewish families, this would change, in his view, were Bedouin education to improve. "A recent study showed that Bedouin parents with a high school education have an average of four children, as against eight or nine for other Bedouin families," Abu-Saad reports. While Bedouin schools are among the worst in Israel, a few Arab schools are among the best. Two of the top educational institutions in Haifa, and indeed in the nation, are the Greek Orthodox School and the Nazareth Nuns School. As the names indicate, both are Christian-run, but many of their pupils are Muslims, and one graduate is Talab al-Sana, a Bedouin Knesset member. Both schools boast an almost unbelievable matriculation exam pass rate of more than 95 percent, and a great majority of graduates go on to earn a university degree. Abu-Saad doesn't expect Bedouin schools to reach the level of these two elite Arab schools in Haifa anytime soon. But he will be more than pleased if they reach the level of Israel's Jewish schools. Nechemia Meyers is a free-lance columnist in Rehovot, Israel. |
