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Itongadol.- The Education Ministry will integrate 500 Arab teachers into understaffed Jewish schools, a move that will benefit both communities, the Prime Minister\’s Office said Tuesday.
Next year, 100 elementary and high-school teachers will receive positions in understaffed fields such as mathematics, English and science. In the five-year plan, the teachers will receive support along the way to help them integrate.
The Education Ministry\’s director general, Dalit Stauber, told Haaretz the plan reflects “a society that meets in the education system, recognizes the excellence in people and enables teachers to integrate. It’s a win for both sides. This partnership breaks down barriers and allows each side to get to know the other properly. It also helps meet the needs of the Arab community, which has a surplus of teachers.”
Mohammed Hiadri, the chairman of the Monitoring Committee for Arab Educational Affairs, said the Arab education system had to fill around 4,000 positions, but some 10,000 Arab teaching graduates, most of them women, were out of work.
"Some of the graduates should also be absorbed into the Hebrew education system, which is suffering a manpower shortage, and a program should be established to provide vocational training in the required subjects,” Hiadri said.
He said the new program would help combat racism.
“Racism is running rampant in society and is seeping down into the schools and the education system," he said. "Employing Arab teachers in Jewish schools will be an important contribution that will help promote values of tolerance and acceptance of the other – as racism can stem from ignorance, fear and prejudice.”