Why is there not yet a permanent structure for the bilingual school in Haifa?

The answer may lie in the helplessness of the municipality or the fear that this is a cover story for the establishment of "another Arab school."

Meanwhile, the school, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary, has grown, and has been forced to host various institutions in the city due to the rollout of the problem between the city and the Ministry of Education. "It's sad, this school should be the standard."

Yoav Itiel

18/05/2022

Wednesday, 18 May 2022, 13:17 Updated: 17:40

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The bilingual school in Haifa marks ten years since the kindergarten was founded, which was the basis for its establishment, and yet the Haifa municipality and the Ministry of Education have not found a home for it.

Now, the Jewish-Arab school community is taking off its gloves and going into an open struggle with the authorities.

"We have been in talks with the municipality all these years," recalls Dr. Meirav Ben-Nun, one of the school's founders. Joint, and then Einat Klish Rotem took office, expressed support from day one and even promised us a campus.

We see it in her blood, but we do not see that anything comes out of her statements.

There is a problem of 'inability to act'.

She returned from the Ministry of Education and said there is no permit for a small school.

This is the absurd, really a Kafkaesque story.

All these years we have been told that there is no permission to increase to two classes in a class even though we have proven that the demand allows us,

"We are very frustrated by this," says Ben-Nun, "maybe we were too nice. Maybe too innocent. So yes, now we are breaking the rules and no longer playing. From the municipal building to the Ministry of Education in the government complex and this time we do not intend to give up. "

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To the full article

The school does not yet have a permanent structure.

Class in the bilingual school in Haifa (Photo: Official website, school community)

"Bilingualism" is a unique educational framework in which Jewish and Arab children, girls and boys, Muslims, Jews, Christians and Baha'is, from all neighborhoods of the city of Haifa, study together.

Each class has two educators, one Jewish and one Arab, and the school operates according to a multicultural common calendar.

All students learn to read and write in Hebrew and Arabic simultaneously from first grade.

Separation between Hebrew speakers and Arabic speakers is done only during 2-3 hours a week, for the purpose of strengthening second language skills.

"We saw the contribution of the community during the events of May 2021. When people in the city felt attacked by us, we gathered the groups, had a dialogue, continued to bring the children to school and went down to the friction zones to say we represent something else," says Ben Nun. This city and the city have a lot to lose if such a framework does not exist. "

One of the municipality's veterans remembers that in 2009, ahead of the closure of the Ma'ale HaCarmel school near the Baha'i kindergartens, the Ministry of Education and the Haifa municipality announced that it would be used as a bilingual school.

But it was eventually sold to the Baha'i community to serve as a lodge for the pilgrims visiting their temple.

This is after it became clear that the Jewish public in the city has no demand for a bilingual school.

Perhaps the concern is that the demand we are talking about in "Yad Lid" is a cover for "another Arab school."

"The city has a lot to lose if such a framework does not exist."

Demonstration of school students in front of the municipality (Photo: Official website, school community)

After years of public struggle to establish a bilingual school in the city, in 2012 the municipality recognized the importance of the model for the city and the bilingual kindergarten opened with 14 boys and girls.

In 2015, the establishment of a public bilingual educational framework was announced, and in the 2016-2017 school year, a bilingual first grade was opened for the first time, as a track within the 'Ahmadia' school, in the Kabvir neighborhood. The bilingual track is a "growing" track, with each year Another layer opens. The track is also a continuation framework for the children of the bilingual kindergarten. The cooperation with the Ahmadia school and the neighborhood community was harmonious but also temporary, because the school space is relatively small and in 2018 the Haifa municipality announced plans to build a new and separate school Bilingual. In the meantime, the school was transferred to be hosted at the Hofit school in the Sha'ar Ha'aliya neighborhood, where it received a cold welcome from those who did not want all this multiculturalism in their neighborhood. "It was a traumatic transition.

The storm has forgotten, the school has grown and now educates 150 girls and boys, but it does not stop growing and again the school yard where it is hosted has become small in size.

Nothing came of the municipality's promises to the campus.

In four months, a seventh grade is scheduled to open for the first time, and the municipality's plan is to house it in the first municipal school in Kiryat Eliezer, where according to this plan, the bilingual middle school will be "hosted."

The result is that instead of a unified campus for the "too small" bilingual framework, it will be split into three different locations in the city.

"We are afraid that the 'temporary' entrance to Urban A will become permanent, every year they will give us another class there and we are no longer willing to conduct ourselves like this without our own independent structure or at least a plan for its establishment."

"Such a school must be in every city and certainly in every mixed city" (Photo: Official website, school community)

"The municipality is pointing the finger of blame at the Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education is referring to the municipality and saying that if the municipality wanted then it would have found a structure for us," says Ben-Nun in frustration. And Arabs, and their parents who have no horizon. "

Among the students at the school are also the grandchildren of former judge Salim Jubran, the first Arab to be appointed to the Supreme Court.

His eldest son is high-tech investor Assad Jubran, who is a lawyer by education, who was also the first Arab steward at El Al in the past.

Jubran is the father of second- and fourth-graders, and agrees, saying, "There were explicit promises by the municipality for a permanent structure and the municipality went back and blamed the Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education is pointing the finger of blame at the municipality. "Unfortunately, they will leave school."

Jubran wants to emphasize, "It's sad that such a school must be in every city and certainly in every mixed city. It should be the standard. That there is a separation between education systems is the abnormal thing that creates problems. If Jews and Arabs were more together then life here Would look different in all respects, economically, socially and politically.

Demonstration of bilingual school students (Photo: Official website, school community)

"They are right and we need to help them," says Gadi Margalit, former director general of the Haifa municipality.

"Maybe that has changed," he adds diplomatically

. Beyond that she is barred from speaking due to the instructions of the Ministry of Education.

Meanwhile, more than 3,000 residents of the city have signed the petition calling on the Haifa Municipality and the Ministry of Education to find an immediate solution that will provide a home for the Jewish-Arab bilingual school starting in the coming school year. They call on all relevant parties to "gather immediately and find a solution that will enable the independent, proper and stable existence of this bilingual and unique Haifa education system."

Students of the bilingual school in Haifa (Photo: Official website, school community)

But it does not seem to be happening, and the authorities are shrugging.

A source in the Ministry of Education says that contrary to what has been claimed in bilingualism over the years they have never asked to add classrooms.

The ministry officially responded: "The Yad Beid school did not meet the criteria required to receive an institution symbol in terms of the size of the institution, therefore the application cannot be approved."

The Haifa Municipality stated that "The Haifa Municipality, in coordination with the parents of the bilingual track students, has submitted a request to the Ministry of Education, so that the track will continue to grow in the future as a designated campus for first to twelfth grade students.

Unfortunately, the Ministry of Education rejected the municipality's request, stating that it does not recognize the need to open an institution symbol for the bilingual track since it is a small institution.

The Ministry of Education suggested that if the Haifa municipality is interested in continuing with the concept of bilingual education, it should locate an existing high school that will allow the track to grow within it, until it is strengthened and proven its ability to stand on its own as an educational institution.

"Out of the municipality's commitment to fostering bilingual education in the city, the municipality acted to enable the growth of the track at one of the high schools in the city, and accordingly forwarded its proposal to the parents."

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