Serious inadequacies in the education of Jewish children in Palestine have been revealed by an investigation by two American Jewish educators, Dr. Alexander M. Dushkin, formerly director of Jewish education in Chicago, and Dr. Moshe Brill, both of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Only 20 percent of the Jewish children in the cities of Palestine go through the eight elementary grades, Dr. Dushkin and Dr. Brill found, while half of them receive less than five grades and one-fourth less than three grades of schooling.
The results of the investigation have been published in the Magnes Book, a collection of scholarly works issued by the Hebrew University in celebration of the sixtieth birthday of its president, Dr. Judah L. Magnes.
In addition to the very large proportion of children dropped out of school in every grade from the first up, Dr. Dushkin and Dr. Brill found an unduly high percentage of children are “left back,” and too small a proportion are “rapid advance.” About 18 percent of the pupils are above the normal age for their grades, they said, whereas “in well conducted schools, the proportion of retarded children should be at most 10 percent, which means that Jewish children in Palestine are unduly retarded in their progress through the grades.”
On the other hand, the educators reported, only 9 percent of the children are “rapid advance.”
“Compared with the situation in the United States (1930), where only 13.4 percent of the Pupils are retarded and 19.7 percent are rapid advance, it would seem that the schools in Palestine do not encourage their pupils to advance through the grades in accordance with their individual needs, but compel them to march with the average,” they stated.
Dr. Dushkin sketched a program for improvement of the organization and methods of the Jewish schools, introduction of modern facilities and methods, and urged legislation regarding compulsory school attendance and free schooling, and prohibition of child labor.
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