Underlying tensions between the Ashkenazic and Sephardic communities which have long plagued Israeli society appear to be behind an angry dispute that erupted this week over whether the recent institution of junior high schools will lower educational standards.
Large numbers of elementary school teachers staged a two hour strike Tuesday morning in support of parents and some teachers in the Rishon LeZion area south of Tel Aviv who object to the educational reform.
Classes which normally start at 8 a.m. did not begin until 10 a.m. Communities from Hadera, midway between Haifa and Tel Aviv, to Gedera, south of Tel Aviv, were affected, but not the greater Tel Aviv area.
UNWRITTEN, UNPUBLICIZED ISSUE
The unwritten and unpublicized issue is busing, which the Education Ministry ordered because the junior high schools draw their student bodies from wider areas than local high schools. Sephardic youngsters have to be bused to schools in largely Ashkenazic neighborhoods and vice versa.
The junior high school plan, 15 years in the making, has proceeded smoothly in most of the country. The Rishon LeZion parents complain, however, that the quality of education is being compromised.
The ethnic basis for the conflict is hinted in their position, although the terms “Sephardic” and “Ashkenazic” are never mentioned. Some observers see a parallel to the controversy in the United States when white parents objected, on educational grounds, to court-ordered busing for the purpose of integration. Interviews and statements on Israel radio in recent days indicate that with municipal elections coming up shortly, some individual parents and teachers are raising the issue for political purposes.
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