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Education in East Jerusalem
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Education in East Jerusalem suffers from an untreatable problem, and it would seem very little can be done to extract it from its predicament. In addition to reiterating what has come to be the consensus in most professional reports about education, this article will attempt to establish a link between the plight of education and the social and cultural life of the residents in Arab East Jerusalem, as well as their human and political future. The Denial of a Right First, a review of the facts. A joint report (2009) by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Ir Arnim presents unsettling data regarding the state of education in East Jerusalem. According to the report, 35,000 Palestinian students were unable to exercise their right to free education within the public education system and, more seriously, about 5,500 children were not studying within any of the educational streams: public or private. There is a shortage of more than 1,000 classrooms in East Jerusalem and the number is growing. It is estimated that this shortage will reach 1,500 classrooms in the year 201 1 . Up to 30,000 students are forced to study in private schools (operated by churches, waqf, UN Relief and Works Agency [UNRWA]), or in Sakhnin college (a commercial enterprise par excellence), which runs 1 1 schools "recognized yet unofficial." The students have to pay exorbitant fees and expenses (in some schools, tuition fees can reach 7,000 NIS per annum).1 It should be noted here that even among students who have been able to attend municipal schools, thousands are studying under inadequate conditions: Classrooms are small, overcrowded and without air conditioning and there are no playgrounds. Additionally, there is a severe lack of teaching aids, such as classrooms and supplies for music, art, or science and technical laboratories.2...