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Minimum curriculum for maximum results

By Ami Volanski


Since 1997, the Education Ministry's Planning Department has informed education ministers and the ministry's director general of the rapid growth in the ultra-Orthodox, independent school system. From the establishment of the state until 1991, approximately 6.5 percent of children studied in the independent system. During the 1990s their numbers grew rapidly until the current 25.9 percent, a trend expected to increase to about 30 percent within a few years. This growth is accompanied by impressive fundraising carried out by associations in the ultra-Orthodox sector, especially in the United States, and by expanded cuts in government funding to education in general.

Over the years, parallel to issuing growth predictions, senior Education officials also reviewed proposals to change the paralyzing concept, now several decades old, dictating the nature of relations between the state and the ultra-Orthodox education sector. The original idea was for the ultra-Orthodox independent school system to implement a core curriculum, consisting of between six to eight subjects. This curriculum, which is a maximum program, is unacceptable to the ultra-Orthodox sector, which refuses to implement it.

It seems likely that the latest proposals of a minimum curriculum will be acceptable to the ultra-Orthodox sector. Its implementation will greatly increase the accessibility of students in the independent system to trade schools and higher education, upon completion of which they can also become part of the workforce. It is a well-known fact that an additional 1.5 percent of workers means a 1.5 percent increase to the Gross National Product, not to mention the decrease in welfare payments to a large population sector currently living below the poverty line.

on the increasing openness among the ultra-Orthodox spiritual leadership in recent years. This echelon is not known to be of one opinion when it comes to involvement in post-high school and academic education geared toward acquiring a profession. But the leadership is not immune to the economic distress of their flock. And the increased demand for education translates into the de-facto recognition of the need for essential secular studies in addition to religious studies.

However, there is a need for great public courage to change the original concept and to enable and encourage a trend toward enlarging the circle of students and job seekers. A policy is required that will fully fund the needs of children in the independent, ultra-Orthodox system, even if the secular curriculum consists of only three subjects. The present core-curriculum requirement of twice that number of subjects is considered an existential threat to ultra-Orthodox education. In its present fixed-idea format, based on an "all or nothing" approach, the core curriculum is deciding the fate of thousands in the ultra-Orthodox community, many of whom are blessed with great skills, only because no other concept has been seriously scrutinized.

What sin have those children committed, who have been born into a reality they did not choose, and who do not know the world outside the walls of the family and the community into which they were born? For those children, even a small step, in the form of studying secular subjects - however limited this study may be - is a large step.

What is needed, therefore, is a moral and practical decision that will have an extensive impact on all of Israeli society. While an agreed-upon formula may not be found, so far no real attempt to do so has been made. At the end of World War II, Winston Churchill knew how to lead his country in a makeover of the relationship between public education and the church. Will we also know how to accomplish this?