Agreement on the Christian schools

33 thousand pupils, Christians, Muslims, Druze, Jews and those without any religion, will return to their studies, thus opening the new school year in the Christian schools which were on strike, protesting the cutting of budgets and the refusal to allow them to raise school fees. Financing of these schools once stood at 75% of their budget but has shrunk to only 29%. The schools were on strike, protesting the shrinking state support and called on the Ministry of Education to cover their growing deficit estimated at 200 million shekels.

According to the agreement that was signed by the two sides, the Ministry of Education will transfer a budget of 50 million shekels to the Christian schools as one time grant for the coming school year, a sum that will come from the Ministry for Social Equality. Likewise, the decision of former Minister of Education, Shai Piron, to cut the hours of extra activities in the schools that are recognized but unofficial, of which the Christian schools are part, was cancelled.

Likewise, the proposal of the Ministry of Education to establish a joint commission from the Ministries of Education, Finance and representatives of the Christian schools was accepted. The commission will study the various subjects that will be brought up by the schools and it will give in its recommendations no later than March 2016. Some such subjects were raised during the negotiations and deal with the payment of parents, a subject that will be dealt with by the inter- ministerial commission. Likewise, the subject of making up the days of work that were lost during the strike will be discussed.

The Christian schools are considered as leading institutions in the Israeli education system. The achievements of these private schools, in which only about 4% of Arab pupils study, have made those who belong to them a kind of elite. According to statistics, these schools get an average 85-95% success rate in the matriculation exams and some schools even achieve 100% success. Furthermore, the statistics tell that 33% of Arab academics and 87% of Arabs working in high tech graduated from these schools.