The Israeli education system is based on the State Education Law (1953). This Law established a system of schools designed to meet one very specific need: the educational demands of the Jewish community. The stated objectives of the system were to advance Jewish culture and Zionist ideology. This philosophy has continued until today, resulting in an educational system which places the needs of some of its pupils above the needs of others. No autonomous educational system has been established for the Arab community. Instead Palestinian students are subjected to an educational curriculum which has been developed by and for the Jewish population.

° Arab students are expected to spend more time studying Torah than their own religious texts;
° Zionist literature and poetry, but not Palestinian classics, are included in standard curriculum;
° Matriculation exams include questions on Judaism, but not on the Muslim, Christian, or Druze faiths.

In addition to such direct discrimination in the classroom, studies have found that Israeli textbooks contain persistent negative and racist references to Arabs and Palestinians.

Discriminatory Funding

The inferior status of Arab schools is largely due to discriminatory budget allocations, which result in a lack of funding and resources.
There is no funding for educational enrichment programs for Arab students despite high drop out rates and a clear need for such support. Nearly 1/3 of all Jewish students have received support from government-funded enrichment programs for impoverished students; Arab students are not eligible for these programs. While 75% of Jewish schools receive career and vocational guidance services, only 25% of Arab schools do.
Half of the tens of thousands of Arab children with special needs are denied access to appropriate classes or schools.
Government-funded preschools do not operate in Arab towns.
The average number of students per classroom is 32 in Arab schools and 27 in Jewish schools.
The result of these discrepancies is that the education provided for Arab students is vastly inferior to that provided for Jewish students. This is reflected in drop-out rates: the drop-out rate among 16-17 year olds is 40% for Arabs and 9% for Jews.

University Matriculation

The matriculation rates for Palestinian Arab students at the university level are very low. Of 26,000 students at Tel Aviv University, for example, less than 3% (676 students) are Arab. There are several reasons for this. First, poor preparation in primary and secondary schools results in lower rates of success on matriculation: in the 2001, the success rate was 45.9% for Jewish students, 31.5% for Palestinian students overall, and only 13.4% for Bedouin students. Once accepted, many students cannot afford the high tuition fees, and as most Government scholarships require military service, almost all Palestinian students are denied governmental support.

The Arab community is also sorely under-represented in the faculties of Israeli universities. Less than 1% of lecturers at Israeli universities are Palestinian. This is not due to a lack of qualified candidates - many Palestinian academics are leaving the country to teach in Europe or the US due to a dearth of employment opportunities in Israel. Others are forced to take jobs for which they are over-qualified.

The 5-Year Plan: Too Little Too Late

The much-touted "Five Year Plan for Improving Arab Education" appeared to many as a promising sign that notice might be taken of the crisis in Arab education. The plan, implemented initially in the 2000-2001 school year, has proven woefully inadequate. The Monitoring Committee for Arab Education has estimated that NIS 840 million would be necessary to meet the immediate needs of the Arab educational system; the Ministry of Education allotted NIS 250 million over 5 years. Moreover, many of the most pressing needs of the Arab sector are completely ignored by the plan, including treatment programs for special education students and curricular attention to the question of Palestinian Arab cultural identity. Overall, the method of implementing the program was designed in a manner which ensures quick improvement in statistical indicators and pays little attention to long-term progress.