Wannabe Orthodox Teachers Outscore Seculars, Arabs

The reason for the gap between religious and secular Jewish schools is that in the religious community there are more idealistic students wanting to teach despite the low salaries. 

Arab students at teachers' college top Jewish counterparts
By Or Kashti • Ha'aretz

The admissions scores of first-year students at colleges training teachers for state-run Arab schools are higher than those preparing for state-run non-religious Jewish schools, a recently released Education Ministry report shows. 

But of the 25 teacher training colleges in the country, the one which scored the highest marks was Herzog College in Gush Etzion, which readies students to teach at state-run religious Jewish schools. On average, such colleges had higher admissions rates than those geared toward non-religious schools. 

The students at the Academic Institute for Arab Teacher Training at Beit Berl College, on the outskirts of Kfar Sava, and Al-Qasemi Academic College of Education, near Baka al-Garbiyeh, had the highest admissions scores this year of colleges geared toward non-religious schools, both Jewish and Arab. 

"We are very happy that we've outranked other institutions, Jewish ones, for training teachers," said Dr. Adel Manna, who heads the Academic Institute for Arab Teacher Training. "Since there are a lot of jobs that are off-limits to Arabs with college degrees the students have no choice but to work from the beginning toward professions where work can be found relatively easily, like teaching. We 'benefit' from this situation." 

However, over the past few years there has been a surplus of Arab teachers, leaving some trained staff unemployed. An Education Ministry official estimated recently that the country currently has a surplus of about 5,000 Arab teachers. 

The Arab teachers college at Beit Berl had the highest average admissions score for all state-run non-religious schools: 577, a number that combines the scores for the bagrut matriculation exams with the psychometric exam. Al-Qasemi had an average of 565 points. The average for state-run Jewish and Arab non-religious schools was 548. 

The third-highest score for the non-religious schools was at the Beit Berl School of Education, with 562 points. 

The average for state-run religious schools was 569. 

Prof. Shmuel Shilo, who heads Herzog, said the reason for the gap between religious and secular Jewish schools was that in the religious community there were more idealistic students wanting to teach despite the low salaries. 

As for the Arab colleges, while Manna focused on selective hiring as a reason for their high rankings, Al-Qasemi head Dr. Muhammad Issawi highlighted the traditionalism of Arab parents. 

Issawi said his institution draws female students who scored very high on their psychometric exams and could have chosen to study in the most prestigious departments at the universities." 

"But the parents push them to teaching, because the profession is considered relatively convenient and suitable for having a family," he said. "If with the Jews, every mother wants her son to be a doctor or lawyer, with us, many parents want their daughter to be a teacher. That conservatism works in favor of the (teacher training) colleges."

Comments

[harold]

in the religious community there are more idealistic students wanting to teach despite the low salaries

Nice to see such devotion and not to look at only the money.

[Simcha]

The scores by themselves have little meaning without more information about the total distribution including mean, median and mode, standard score and standard deviation. There may be little statistical significance between the highest and lowest scores or their could be great significance even between small differences in the scores. Let's not quickly resort to "shachtzanut."

[NMD]

The article is absurd.

According to the UN Report on Human Development, Arab schools are at the bottom of the global educational barrel, save for those in sub Saharan Africa (and there aren't that many schools ion sub Saharan Africa).

All of a sudden, PA schools which include all kind of racism, bigotry and hate as well as historical revisionism as a part of their curriculum are no equal to Israeli schools.

I guess getting an 'A' in Holocaust denial, anti semitism and bigotry are good qualifiers for Palestinian wannabe teachers.

The Haaretz writer is an idiot.

[Shmarya]

The Haaretz writer is an idiot.

Chances are, you're the idiot.

Ha'aretz is talking about ISRAELI Arab schools, not PA schools.

[NMD]

You're right. I stand corrected.

The school is for Israeli Arabs.

[A E ANDERSON]

I have no faith in the accuracy of any number or statistic that an Israeli administrator submits that is tied in any way to government funding. Next to "protectsia," creative accounting is the national pastime in Israel, especially for the Haredi schools who believe their misdeeds are mitzvahs.

I would more impressed if the matriculation/graduation results were based on an objective, independent examination.

[jonathan becker]

i would think the story here would be about how the arabs outscored the secular jews, and how both the arab and religious scores were seen to be a reflection of economic desperation (since teacher salaries are so low, the dominant secular jewish sector turns its nose up at them).

[Shmarya]

Agreed.

[jonathan becker]

sorry, i meant how the religious outscored the secular etc.

[jonathan becker]

still confused, i think the problem is your headline. i understood that the arabs outscored everybody:

"The students at the Academic Institute for Arab Teacher Training at Beit Berl College, on the outskirts of Kfar Sava, and Al-Qasemi Academic College of Education, near Baka al-Garbiyeh, had the highest admissions scores this year of colleges geared toward non-religious schools, both Jewish and Arab.

am i missing something here?

[Shmarya]

am i missing something here?

You must be.

The religious scores were the highest.

[jonathan becker]

k thx. i think i got it now.

[invisible hand]

Note that this is an ADMISSION score.
Something like the SAT.
It measures the quality of the applicant, not the training provided.
As the author explains, populations with restricted alternative employment send a better slice of secondary graduates into teacher training.
Back in the 1950's for example, female college grads in the top 10% of their class became teachers. Now they become doctors, lawyers and accountants. There are some articles suggesting this had an adverse effect on education in the U.S. because we did not raise salaries to lure bright young people into teaching.
Perhaps a lesson for Israel.
You cannot cash goodwill at the supermarket.

[Yakira]

"Since there are a lot of jobs that are off-limits to Arabs with college degrees the students have no choice but to work from the beginning toward professions where work can be found relatively easily, like teaching."
Could someone please tell me that this is not atypical in Israel? I would like to think that there is more to the Arab unemployment than the former statement.

[lila]

http://arabism-islamism.webs.com

The twin fascisms that causes most massacres, wars, "conflicts" today:

Arabism is racism (Arab racism)
Millions upon Millions are/became victims of Arabism which is the worst current form of racism in its gigantic proportions, like: Kurds Jews (not just in Israel...) Berbers (the real natives of North Africa), Africans (noty just in the genocide in the Sudan & in Egypt on native Nubians by Arab invaders - till today), Persians, etc.

Islamism is bigotry (Islamofascism)!
The Islamic supremacy that "works" towards its vision of "final Islamic domination on the entire planet", from Middle east to Africa from Asia to Eurabia, from terrorism & massacres in multiple countries (like: Thailand, Phillipines, China, Indonesia, Tunisia, Morocco, Kenya, Tanzania, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon India, USA, France, Israel, Russia, UK, etc.) to propaganda,

Let's face it! that entire war on Israel & the Jews since the 1920's by their facsist Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini who started the "genocide campaign" [and continues by the children/grand children of Arab immigrants into Israel - Palestine - now convenienently called "palestinians"] in a clear outlined declaration to 'kill all Jews', is nothing but out of pure Arab Muslim bigotry.