Yigal Allon, Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, said yesterday that Israel was working toward the goal of a free high school education for everyone. At present, free compulsory education in Israel extends only from kindergarten through the tenth grade. Addressing the second annual Jewish Agency General Assembly, Allon promised a free 11th grade within four years. He said that until then, 11th grade tuition would be reduced by 25 percent.
Referring to the pre-academic courses offered by Israeli universities in cooperation with the government and the Jewish Agency for Army veterans who did not have matriculation but wished to enter a university, Allon said that 80 percent of the students attending these courses eventually were admitted to a university.
The Education Minister rejected a questioner’s comment that Jewish students from abroad were taking Israeli university places at the expense of local students who had to attend college overseas and often did not return. Allon said Israeli universities had room for all qualified students. He added, however, that there was a shortage of places for would-be medical students “since so many mothers wanted their sons to be doctors.”
Allon praised the work of WIZO and other women’s organizations in the area of pre-kindergarten training. He said that over 70 percent of four year olds in Israel attended nursery schools, the highest figure in the world. What a child loses by-not-attending nursery is never made up later in life, he said.
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