A session of the Knesset Education Committee was held on Wednesday, 11 Tammuz to address “the barriers to graduate studies for chareidim should be removed and they should be permitted to study in separate frameworks for men and women,” said MK Yaakov Margi, Chairman of the Education Committee.

“I understand the legal difficulties, but if you have an unequivocal statement about integrating chareidim into academia, the State Prosecutor’s Office will also support it,” said Margi to a representative of the Council for Higher Education (CHE).

Margi added, “There is progress and an increase in the percentage of chareidim in academia, but the pace is not the pace we had hoped for, and some people fear it, but we will deal with them,” Margi said.

During the committee session, Dr. Eitan Regev of the Taub Center explained there has been a significant increase in the number of chareidim entering into higher education in the past six years; from 1,100 to 3,200 today.

Dr. Regev pointed out that “half of the chareidi men admitted to the preparatory courses drop out, while the dropout rate during the academic degree reaches 48%. His recommendations were: better preparation in high school, observance of participation in the preparatory programs as required by law, more hours of mentoring and guidance during the degree, and scholarships to help chareidi students financially. ”

Ravid Omasi, a representative of the Council for Higher Education, which is responsible for integrating chareidi students, said that “11,000 chareidi students are not taken for granted. There are 20 frameworks for chareidim spread throughout the country and there are a variety of professions that teach employment and engineering. In pre-academic preparatory courses “.

“In the general sector as well, the dropout rate from colleges is 50% because the preparatory programs are a screening tool before academic studies. There is a scholarship fund in the amount of NIS 20 million, which will soon increase to NIS 60 million.” Omasi also said that for every shekel that the academic institutions receive for a secular student, the chareidi student receives NIS 1.3 and we check that the institutions are spending the money for integrating chareidi students.”

MK Michael Malchieli referred to the dropout rates and said, “Students do not always drop out because of pedagogical difficulties, but because of conditions in universities and colleges. He questioned if universities take davening times and kashrus into consideration. He also spoke of lecturers in universities who speak out against chareidim. Malchieli stated the dropout rate is not necessarily related to studies.

Committee Chairman MK Yaakov Margi summed up the discussion: “The Education Committee has taken a close look at the barriers that chareidi students face in academia. The Knesset committee turns to the Council on Higher Education to examine the conditions of opening a study track for chareidi students in academic institutions and to create a package to escort those students.

“The Committee views the severity of the fact that in 2017 there is still no updated statistical data and a comprehensive database. In addition, the committee closely examined the gap between the percentage of dropouts in public academic institutions and the percentage of dropouts from private academic institutions, and calls on the CHE to monitor more intensively the academic degrees given to chareidi students.

“In the past, the CHE recognized the Szold exams as an alternative to a matriculation certificate for chareidi girls. They call on the Council for Higher Education to continue to recognize these tests for veteran teachers, and called for the creation of frameworks suited to the chareidi public, including gender segregation for graduate studies.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)