Ir Amim report: East Jerusalem currently lacks 2,247 classrooms, compared to about 1,500 when the High Court petition was filed in 2007. Over the past five years, only some 35 classrooms a year have been built – less than the number needed to accommodate the population’s natural growth. The Ir Amim report, based on data from the municipality and Education Ministry, said the dropout rate at the end of 2012 was 13 percent in East Jerusalem, compared to a nationwide ave
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Ir Amim report: East Jerusalem currently lacks 2,247 classrooms, compared to about 1,500 when the High Court petition was filed in 2007. Over the past five years, only some 35 classrooms a year have been built – less than the number needed to accommodate the population’s natural growth. The Ir Amim report, based on data from the municipality and Education Ministry, said the dropout rate at the end of 2012 was 13 percent in East Jerusalem, compared to a nationwide average of 4.6 percent in Arab high schools and 2.6 percent in Jewish ones. Moreover, it said, Jerusalem ran 21 programs to prevent dropouts in Jewish schools but only eight in Arab schools.
The severe neglect East Jerusalem schools have suffered may leave them no real choice but to accept the ministry’s offer, said attorney Oshrat Maimon of Ir Amim. If Israel really wanted to raise the level of education in East Jerusalem, she said, it should open Israeli universities to students who take the Palestinian matriculation exam – something other “respected universities worldwide” have done – and work to combat employment discrimination. Attempting instead to impose the Israeli curriculum will merely “increase the tension of life in the city and undermine the rights of the Palestinian community,” she charged.
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