Report: Israel discriminating against Arab students

The Israeli Knesset Research and Information Centre has revealed a huge gap between the government’s funding of Jewish and Arab students at Israeli schools, Arab48 reported yesterday.

According to the Development and Efficiency Index at the Israeli Education Ministry, the Israel students are divided into four classifications: weak, weak-intermediate, intermediate-strong and strong.

The Knesset report found that 87 per cent of the Arab students at the primary schools classified as weak or weak-intermediate, 88.5 per cent at preparatory schools and 87.5 at the secondary schools.

The report found that Arab-majority schools get far less funds than the Jewish schools, stating that the state pays up to 43,000 shekels ($12,174) for Jewish students at secondary school level, while their Arab counterparts only receive funding of 24,250 shekels ($6,866); almost half as much.

The report was issued on request by the Arab MK from the Joint List Yousef Jabareen who accused the state of discriminating between Jewish and Arab students.

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