Israel Arab education plan to boost growth

Limited Scope

“This is a definitely a positive step,” said Yousef Jabareen, head of the Dirasat Arab Center for Law and Policy in Nazareth. “However, it is limited in its scope and it will not create substantial transformation of the situation unless additional issues are addressed.”

At a time when the next government will be asked to cut billions of shekels from the 2013 budget, Jabareen wants more funding for higher education in Arabic. He charges that college entrance exams are “culturally biased” toward Jewish students, and he opposes minimum age requirements for some faculties that suit Jewish students who perform army or community service after high school, but hamper Arab students, who generally do not.
Arabs, who account for 20 percent of Israel’s nearly 8 million people, lag the population on each level of educational achievement and have a higher drop-out rate, according to government data. They make up 12 percent of university students studying for their first degree, 8.2 percent of masters students, and 4.4 percent of doctoral students.

Those who do attend university favor professions such as medicine, pharmacy, nursing and teaching, which enjoy prestige in their community, and are less present in business schools.

Educational Gaps

Israeli Arabs make up a fifth of the population and produce 8 percent of economic output. Their households earn on average 40 percent less than Jewish counterparts, according to government figures.

If those gaps were narrowed by half, “you can have a significant increase in GDP,” said Trajtenberg, 62, a Tel Aviv University professor and former head of the National Economic Council, in a March 6 interview.

Unlike Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Israeli Arabs enjoy equal rights under the law. But they have long complained of discrimination in employment and government services, including funding for their separate school system.

Arab underemployment is part of a bigger set of labor force problems hurting economic growth. Nearly 80 percent of Arab women and more than half of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men do not work. Cultural mores have kept many Arab women at home, raising families. Ultra-Orthodox men who don’t work receive state stipends so they can devote their time to religious study.

The labor force participation patterns have helped to fuel a 20 percent poverty rate that was the highest in the 34-state Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to the group’s December 2011 economic survey of Israel.

“There are large populations that are not at the center of activity,” said Trajtenberg. “It is our responsibility as a society to open the gates to bring them in.”

Alisa Odenheimer & Gwen Ackerman
To contact the reporters on this story: Alisa Odenheimer in Jerusalem at aodenheimer@bloomberg.net Gwen Ackerman at gackerman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net