Push to revamp education funding falls flat in Israel
Despite a grand five-year plan to invest in education for Arab-Israelis, the gaps between the Jewish and Arab education systems in Israel have only grown.
The Israeli government was supposed to budget five billion shekels ($1.46 billion) to bolster the Arab education system from 2016 to 2020. This budget, part of a five-year plan meant to close gaps between Israel's Arab and Jewish populations, was set to end this year. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took pride in the plan, which allocated more than any government had before it the purpose.
But in a meeting convened by new Minister for Social Equality Meirav Cohen on July 14, it became clear that out of 15 billion shekels ($3.85 billion) the plan budgeted for several areas, scarcely more than half was actually delivered. The Education Ministry and the Finance Ministry were supposed to receive a third of the fund to add teachers, classrooms and instructional hours to Arab elementary and middle schools in order to close the gaps in educational performance and to better prepare students for high school. But little of the intended budget was actually granted, and from the data we have received, only 30% of the goal, about a billion and half shekels ($440 million), found its way to the intended recipient departments in the Arab education system.
The Ministry of Education admits that it failed to manage the plan properly and did not channel the money into the right programs. In the meantime, the gaps between Jewish and Arab students in Israel have grown. Data presented to the Knesset education committee showed that the achievement of Arab students declined from 2015 to 2018, as shown in the results of the Program for International Student Assessment exams that are administered to middle school students every three years by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for research, policy-making and curricula creation.
The tests gauge students’ proficiency in three areas: reading, mathematics and science. In 2018, the testing emphasized reading proficiency. Israeli students received lower marks than average for OECD nations but the most notable data point was the substantial gap between Hebrew-speaking and Arabic-speaking students. Among Hebrew speakers, 4% of students were classified as excelling in all three proficiency areas, while among Arabic speakers, the percentage was miniscule. Of Hebrew speakers, 12% were classified as struggling in all three areas of proficiency, while more than half of Arabic-speaking students were classified as struggling in all areas.
