Education and skills as a human right

by Shay P [go to Omer, Michal, Gaya]

Introduction

The state of Israel is a democratic state. In Israel there are minority groups that their characteristics are different from the majority's characteristics. They are differenced from the majority in their nationality, in their religion, in their first language, in their culture and in other things. As every democratic state, Israel must create organizations that need to keep the ethic and the culture of the minority and give them an equal chance to succeed in education which will assist in decreasing the socio-economic gaps. My aim in this essay is to check if the state of Israel is taking care of this important principle, and especially to one of her unique minority groups -the Bedouin. And if their basic right to education and skills is implemented under equal conditions, another part of their rights has been implemented according to the laws of the state.

The education as a human right and as an economic growth factor:

The aim of the education is to develop the man by physically, spiritually, mentally and morally, show the pupils the culture heritage of the society and prepare them ready for life.

In the state of Israel, many groups of minority are existent.

As an example, there are the Bedouin, the ultra-orthodox Jews, et cetera.

The majority in Israel is non-religious people.

The Bedouin have unique characteristics like:

A. Their special dress.

B. They like to ride on camels more than to drive their cars; they like to live in tents.

C. Their educational way, and in many other things…

Even in the Declaration of Independence (of Israel) it states: “social and political equality for every civilian in the country with no difference of religion mankind or gender.

And also we been promised:” freedom of religion, conscience, education, language and culture”.

From here it's possible to see that Israel defines herself completely sociality equal for every civilian of the state as a basic social principal.

In addition, it is important to say that maybe an improvement in the economic data of a state is the best way to drag Israel forward and increase the standard of living, but this is not enough. Except for improvements of economic data we need to decrease the range between the minority and the majority, that's why we need to give the minorities tools which will help them to decrease the ranges.

For that purpose we need to give to the weaker parts of the population an equal chance to succeed in life. An equal chance like this will help them to get an education. Not an equal education for everyone but extra education for the people who stay behind, in order to give them a chance to decrease the range. I wanted to check if there is any mechanism like this in Israel for the Bedouin.

The Bedouin in the Negev – background

In the past all the tribes of the Bedouin were travelers.

But because of the difficulties in finding pasture areas and water resources, part of them turned into half travelers that mean permanent residents, working in farming in winter, and traveling with their sheep in summer.

Today over more than half of the Bedouin are living in the city Rahat, and in other villages in the area which the state of Israel recognizes them, and the other are living in non-recognized villages. The recognized villages are connected to water and electricity, but the non-recognized villages are not connected to water and electricity and have no foundations like public transportation, education, and a municipality.

The Bedouin in the Negev: socio-economic situation.

In the past the Bedouin livelihood was based especially on agriculture - pasture of sheep and growing field crops.

But some developments caused the decrease in the Bedouin revenues from agriculture:

A. the Bedouin work in old fashion methods and the world changed this work and manufacturing methods.

B. the Bedouin has been used to living in steady villages and that's why they couldn't work in agriculture.

C. Lands expropriation by the state for building cities, prevented from the Bedouin to find and use large pasture areas.

All that brings the Bedouin to search for other livelihood resources in addition to the agriculture, but their position in the periphery of Israel and the lack of foundations for industry in the Bedouin's towns could not let them develop an alternative livelihood resource.

As a result of the situation that I described above, the Bedouin population in the Negev is the population which is rated in the lowest place in the socio-economic rate in Israel.

The education to the Bedouin sector

Since the 90's, different organizations of human rights (and especially the union for human rights) in Israel manage a public and legal battle for improvement of the services that the government gives to the Bedouin recognized villages and to the non recognized villages as one. Following some different petitions to court; high schools were built in part of the recognized villages, the non recognized villages connected to electricity for the first time, and other governmental services improved, schools in non recognized villages have been connected to electricity and governmental services have improved.

You can also find very nice initiatives for improving the education of the Bedouin. As an example – a group of sixteen students from Rahat went to destruction camps in Poland. This initiative came from the office of education which wants to take care in the radicalization of the Bedouin teenagers and to get them closer to the Israeli society.

But still you can ask why they did not use this money to buy air-conditioners for the pupils and to build new classes?

Another nice initiative we can find in the army. The Bedouin are being recruited to the army, a thing that helps them to progress in life. In addition, you can find “The Bedouin warriors project” in the army where Bedouin can have an academic degree during their service in the army, and the military pays for it entirely. In the future they will combine in their work.

But, still the Bedouin sector is considered as a deprived sector and the Bedouin has lower education quality than the majority's education.

The percentage of school dropouts in the Bedouin sector is 40%-50%.

Yet, the percentage of school dropouts in the Jewish sector- is only 5.5%.

The Bedouin think that the Jewish officialdom doesn't take care of the traditional population's needs such as: no separate classes for boys and girls, no special schedule that match the unique culture of the Bedouin, no high schools near the villages and the girls who need to get the school by buses can't do it because their parents don't allow them to do it.

On the other hand, the education office and the government in Israel claim that they activate many different programs for preventing dropping out of schools, and to improve the educational subjects in schools. But in my opinion this is not enough.

Summary

Today, in Israel, there is no mechanism for extra education for Bedouin who stays behind. On the contrary – the data that I read show that the education for the richest and the stronger part of the population in Israel is much better than the education for the weaker part of the population, like the Bedouin, and this fact promises that the range between these parts of the population will become bigger and bigger, from generation to generation.

To my surprise, the Bedouin are not fighting against the state in order to make improvements in the different educational systems.

I think that after the Bedouin will internalize and accept themselves the way of life in Israel which includes steady livings and community services, they will agree to get closer to the majority and they will strongly demand their basic right to education and skills as their human right!

By Shay P. 5^th Grade Ein Ganim School Petach Tikva, Israel