Privatization in the Education System - Discussion Summery
HILA's General Meeting 28.02.06
Participants: Members of the organization, parent representatives from Sderot, Ashqelon and Jaljulya.
Host: Amichai Yehuda
The main subject matter discussed: The entry of business chains into development towns, low-income neighbourhoods and Arab villages
A. It's especially easy for business chains to penetrate areas where the education system is failing. The transfer of the school to an educational chain takes place in those places through the initiatives of the business chains that market themselves and lure the council's director of education with tempting offers promising to take full responsibility for the education in a particular school or area, to improve achievements and to efficienize the system. The chains also bribe the education director with a higher salary, promise nepotism favors and more.
B. In all the cases known to HILA, the decision to transfer the management of the school from the local council to the chain is settled without the knowledge or inclusion of the parents. The parents are informed through a laconic letter that they receive towards the opening of the school year once the transfer procedure has been completed and the contract signed. From the moment the "ownership" of the school is transferred to the educational chain, it stops being a public building and parents of students are limited and sometimes prohibited from entering. When representatives of the municipal parent committee of Sderot wanted to enter the local high school, Amit Chain's director called the police claiming trespassing. This tendency is repeating itself. The private chains do not see themselves obligated to the director–general's instructions and treat parents as a nuisance and not as partners in the school community. Parent involvement in schools is difficult in the public system but almost impossible when a school is controlled by a private chain.
C. Business not pedagogic considerations: The motivation of chains like "Amal", "Amit" and "Atid" to enter development towns, low-income neighborhoods and Arab villages is not educational but economical. These are business bodies that are managed with aims of profit which are declared openly. In addition to the managerial fees which are transferred from the local council, the chain acquires services and decreases the school's functional expenses. The extra curricular and enrichment lessons are acquired from private bodies and charities such as Tali and Karev according to economical, non-pedagogic considerations. The school turns into a contractor of study programs. There has also been an influx of companies into schools - Rugozin School in South Tel Aviv for example, worked with a group of artists who operated a community program but were recently dismissed in favour of "Sisko" a high-tech company that build laboratories and participates in a training program to train technicians. Technicians are the "low-tech" of the high–tech and this is therefore a continuation of the traditional vocational education. Questions like the number of students in a class are set primarily according to economic considerations, as indeed the chain's aim is to maximize profits. Although the chains are subordinate to the supervision of the Ministry of Education, in the era of autonomic management, where even the public state schools are managed as a business that markets itself, recruiting students and funds, it seems that the Ministry's intervention in the management is minimal.
D. Chains that set their sights on weaker areas are chains that specialize in special education and as a result do not usually raise academic achievements in the area. The chains also expel students and prevents weaker students from sitting matriculation exams so as to not effect the grade average of the chain's graduates which would interrupt its marketing. The case of the "Amal" school in Taibe was discussed. The "Amal" chain is known for its archaic special education and for its high level of violence, many of the chain's schools were closed down following economic and educational failures. Amal's flagship today is a school in Taibe that prides itself on the high achievements in mathematics, which remain way above the national average. This school has turned into a regional school for students who are socially and economically strong in the centre Arab region. It does not accept weaker or poor students and is very selective about who they enter for matriculation – only those who they estimate will pass successfully sit the exam.
E. The cutbacks in public funding and the collection of parent payments: parent committee members from all over the country report of excessive parent fees in schools, lack of transparency in the financial management, the concealment of information from parents regarding the use of the money and pressure on parents to pay by withdrawing children from activities if they don't pay even though this is stands against the general director's instructions. A school in Ashqelon, which plans many trips, increases the price of each consecutive trip, and keeps the surplus in the school's savings. Examples from both Asqelon and Sderot were given regarding excessive parent payments for extra curricular activities, payments which stray far above what is permitted according to the Ministry's instructions. In Rahat, parents were asked to bring chairs for their children with the opening of the new school year because the school's budget did not stretch that far. The procedure according to which parent are suppose to be involved in the choosing of the extra study programs hardly never takes place, the school is the decider.
F. Parent committees - In the era of business chains and privatizations there is a clear tendency to impede any parent involvement or supervision in schools. The school has turned from a public community site into a private one whose owner determines who passes through the gates. Because of the weak supervision on the part of the Ministry of Education and the economic interest of the school, there is an increasing importance to parent supervision especially in the pedagogical domains, which are the most neglected.
The problem of creating cooperation between parents and the regional parent councils was raised. Parents from Jaljulya and Sderot spoke of their difficulties to promote struggles because of the objections from parents closely associated through cooptation or closely associated to the education administrators and school staff in the area. Batya from Sderot said how she was offered to choose any framework she wanted for her children anywhere in the country, including transportation, so she would back down from her struggle against the intrusion of the "Amit" chain in Sderot. Jaljulya activists spoke of job offers as a common way of buying parent cooperation. Ways of recruiting parents and forming a united front in struggles for education were discussed, mainly through door to door explaining and convincing.