Abba Eban, Israel’s Minister of Education and Culture, took issue in the Knesset, Parliament, today, with Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion on the question of “compulsory and free high school education” in this country. Without mentioning Mr. Ben-Gurion, but referring to that slogan, Mr. Eban proposed instead a policy of “free secondary education for those who are adept and who wish it.”
Mr. Eban’s enunciation of a policy on high school education came up as he discussed before the Knesset his Ministry’s 1963-64 budget, calling for 200,000,000 pounds. He described the Ben-Gurion formulation on high school education as “both impractical and unnecessary.”
He said that, now, 60 percent of Israel’s youth between the ages of 15 and 17 are getting a high school education. He argued that this was among the highest percentages in the world, and expressed the view that a youth over the age of 16 should be permitted a choice between further schooling and “initiative toward a craft and economic independence, if these beckon to him.”
Mr. Eban’s report showed that, in the past three years, Government subsidies to high schools rose from 9,000,000 pounds a year ($3,000,000) to 20,000,000 pounds (about $6,700,000).
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