Hannah Hart

GCU 114

White

March 28, 2018

Israel’s Education Report With UN Standards

Education is what will drive humans to further our peak existence and hopefully better

our image on this planet. Everyone deserves a chance to learn whether they be female, male,

accessible, or inaccessible. Education (specifically education for women and girls, McCarthy

2015) will even reduce poverty rates creating easier solutions to exponentially higher global

efforts in openness and outwardness in thinking and creativity. The UN initiatives prove to be

working in an upward pace advocating for governmental systems to really partake in

strengthening their education. The three initiatives are putting every child in school, improving

the quality of learning, and inspiring global citizens.

Israel plays on the UN’s three initiatives, especially by emphasizing the third initiative of

inspiring global citizens. The school systems are divided into four different groups: state schools,

state religious schools (Jewish concepts), Arab and Druze schools (Arab and Druze concepts and

history), and private religious schools. They make sure every child from the age of 6 to age 18 is

attending school and even the exceptional and children with disabilities are given opportunities

to learn in a classroom setting. Students will only spend a maximum of 41 hours in school and

have a right to free education (Israel Ministry Foreign Affairs). It is widely inhabited by over 70

different immigrant and cultural groups. The different schools take immigration into

consideration when adding to their curriculum for their students.

 “Schools are forced to adapt to the changing surroundings and to serve as agents of

change, capable of and responsible for meeting new challenges and preparing youth for the

future” (Resh and Benavot 2009; Yemini, Addi Raccah, and Katarivas 2015).

Both formal and informal education programs must integrate elements of internationalism

which means; global citizenship, intercultural understanding, human rights, social justice, and

environmental sustainability (Mundy et al. 2007). This is necessary because of the political

challenges of the state and the surrounding countries around it.

Unfortunately, as much as I am biased towards my homeland and my beloved people,

there is a clear gap between the socioeconomic statuses of the Jewish Israelis and the Palestinian

Israelis. The education systems are much different and do conflict a little with the UN second

initiative. This is partially because the Israeli government not allowing citizenship to Palestinians

(this is a different historical and political issue that one should read up on) and because of the

gender bias in the Arab Palestinian society.

“In the education system, discrimination against women candidates for leadership

positions is expressed from early stages in the culture of school management and in the division

of school roles, so that women are assigned to purely pedagogic functions and are prevented

from promotion to management roles (Shapira and Hertz-Lazarowitz 2002).”

At the very most, at least women are given somewhat a chance to learn at a young age.

To conclude, I feel that just like most first world countries, Israel does the best job it can

do while still fighting a war. They continue to learn, grow, and fight every day and globalize

their nation however they can.

 If one was not aware of what is currently going on in the Middle-East at the moment, I

highly recommend doing so. I was just accepted onto a Campus Zionist of America Israel trip

where I will be exploring different parts of Israel that have to do with the religious,

archaeological rights, political, and educational sectors of people’s daily lives. I will be writing

in a journal about my travels and hope to update more on this website soon.