The school year officially ends today, and almost two and a half million students – including 570,<> Arab students – are going on summer vacation. This is, as we know, a time that worries quite a few parents and families. It would not be an exaggeration to say that summer vacation is the nightmare of many parents.
The whole lifestyle of children is changing. For many children, night becomes day: children stay awake, roam the web, talk and play over the Internet with their acquaintances and friends anywhere in the world, and as a result spend the day sleeping.
Apart from harming children's health, this is a problem that has become a pattern and grows over the years, and so the younger generation gets used to a problematic lifestyle during school vacations. Many parents are helpless in the face of their children's demands and requests, who are affected not by what is physically happening on the streets and neighborhoods, but by the digital space and what is done in groups and social networks.
Shooting in front of the son // Photo: Use under section 27A of the Copyright Law
Despite the state's investment in informal education in Arab society, the road is still far from ideal. Although we have seen the establishment of dozens of community centers in Arab localities, and new management teams have been trained, many of the community centers are unable to create essential and dedicated alternative activities for children throughout the year – let alone during vacations, which are even more challenging. Many of the community centers make do with a few days of summer camp, mainly swimming classes, instead of establishing vital and important classes that can connect the youth regularly to the community center and position it as an important address, perhaps even more than the school. In fact, this is a missed opportunity that every year comes the way of the community centers, and every year loses its value anew. A student on vacation who sees the community center as an important framework during the summer may also see it as an important framework during the school year. In the absence of meaningful extracurricular activities, it is no wonder that many parents choose to take their children to nearby Jewish cities, as part of their personal and private investment in extracurricular activities such as chess and music.
It has already been proven that there is a direct connection between informal educational activities, which take place mainly in community centers, and violence and crime in Arab society. When a child wanders the streets of the village or on the Internet without a proper educational or leisure framework, he becomes a potential target for the world of crime, and examples or concerns are not lacking in Arab society.
Potential for deterioration
Localities such as Jisr al Zarqa, Rahat and Tel Sheva can be a small example of this, and the less invested in informal youth frameworks, the greater the potential for deterioration. Not coincidentally, many of those detained in clashes that took place in recent years, including during Operation Guardian of the Walls, were young people and teenagers, some of them minors, and perhaps this is also the reason why the government's discussions on Arab education involve entities such as the Bank of Israel, the National Security Council and even the Shin Bet.
Despite the budget gaps, it cannot be argued that only informal education bears responsibility. Therefore, the order of the day is the involvement of parents, who will seek and demand frameworks for their children, even if it requires going against the local authority.
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