1. The Necessity to Invest in Israeli­Arab Women’s Education
Cassia Bardos
Isha L’Isha, Haifa, Israel
June­August 2015
Abstract:
Higher education is a vital pathway to improving the human capital of Israeli Arabs and thus
facilitating this population’s integration into Israeli society through increased participation in the
labor force and employment. This paper examines the economic situation of the Arab sector in
Israel, especially the unique situation of Arab women, whose employment rates are the lowest of
all demographics in Israeli society, and makes the case that removing barriers for Arab women to
pursue higher education is critical to increasing their integration and improving the quality of life
for Arab women in Israel. The issue, however, is a complex one, and solutions will necessitate
profound, long­term changes to the education system in Israel, which often works to the
detriment of Arab students, especially women, rather than to their benefit.
Underemployment of the Arab Population as a Principal Weakness of the Israeli Economy
Patterns of employment of the Arab population are a central socioeconomic concern for Israel.
According to the Fiscal Report of the Israeli Ministry of Finance for 2013­2014, the growth
potential of Israel’s economy is undermined by the low participation rates in the labor force, low
employment and low productivity of certain population sectors, namely of the Haredi and Arab
populations. Making the issue even more urgent, from 2009 to 2059 these groups are expected to
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2. grow as other sectors shrink: the non­Haredi Jewish population in Israel is projected to decrease
from 69.7% of the population to 50.3%, while the Haredi (ultra­orthodox) population is expected
to grow from 9.9% to 26.6% and the Arab population from 20.3% to 23.1%. The low
productivity of these sectors, if maintained, will increase the tax burden on an increasingly small
demographic of Israeli society, worsening existing socioeconomic issues. As seen in Table 1,
employment rates for non­Haredi Jews are the highest across the board, more than the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a group of 34 countries
dedicated to democracy that coordinate trade policies. However, employment of Haredi Jewish
men is much lower at less than 50%, and Arab women have the lowest employment rate at less
than 30%, though Arab men’s employment is over 70%.
Graph 1.1
Source: Central Bureau of Statistics and processed data of the Bank of Israel, 2011.
According to the 2012 Report on the Reality of Arab Women in Israel produced by the Galilee
Society, the Arab National Society for Health Research and Services, over 50% of Arab families
are living below the poverty level in Israel, in comparison with 10% of Jewish families. In regard
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3. to gender, according to statistics from the National Insurance Institute of Israel, almost 50% of
Arab women were living in poverty compared to 13% of Jewish women in 2009. Furthermore,
poverty rates correlate directly with employment rates, notably the employment of the women in
the families. The poverty rate of the Arab families in which the woman did not work was found
to be 24.1 percentage points higher than the Jewish population, while the poverty rate was 8.1
percentage points higher than the Jewish population in Arab families in which the woman did
work. Clearly, Arab women’s participation in the workforce is vital to reducing the poverty
discrepancy between the Arab and Jewish populations. The social justice protests of 2011, which
led to the formation of the Trajtenberg Committee, produced a government resolution that
budgeted NIS 750 million for measures to increase employment accessibility for Arab women
with 10­12 years of education, including employment training and subsidized day­care centers.
This measure will aid Arab women’s access to employment that realistically fits their needs.
The Relationship between Education and Labor Force Participation of Arab Women
Education rates of Arab women in Israel show promising signs. Since 1998, as demonstrated by
Graph 2.1, the amount
of Arab women with
higher levels of
education has increased.
Graph 2.1
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4. The percentage of Arab women with more than 16 years of education has risen, accompanied by
increases in the 13­15 year and 11­12 year groups. The amount of Arab women who have fewer
years of education has declined as well. These developments are accompanied by stronger
participation in the labor force by more educated Arab women, shown in graph 2.2 below.
Graph 2.2
Well­educated Arab women have much better employment prospects, but while employment
rates for these highly­educated women rise, focus must also be put on creating jobs for their
uneducated peers, mostly older Arab women, whose employment rates remain low and whose
participation in the labor force has dropped over time. According to data from the Rikaz
Databank on the relationship between level of education and participation in the workforce for
other sectors of society, Arab women with only high school diplomas participate in the
workforce at a rate one­third that of their Arab male counterparts, while those with only an
elementary and middle school education participate at a rate one­fifth that of Arab men with the
same education. While participation rates for these Arab women have improved from 2005 to
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5. 2010, their situation cannot be ignored in favor of increasing education opportunities for Arab
women in general. Only by both spreading access to education and generating employment
opportunities for less­educated Arab women will all Arab women be able to improve their
economic situation.
Two labor markets exist in Israel for the Arab population. The first is the largely Jewish
central labor market, and the second is the ethnic and local labor market, which exists in Arab
villages or Arab­majority areas. Many factors, including racial and religious discrimination, lack
of suitable transportation, and lack of education bar Arabs from the central labor market and
direct them to the ethnic­local market. For Arab women with children, the desire to retain their
role as mothers while working steers them toward the ethnic­local market because it is close to
home and transportation to urban centers is inadequate. Arab women also face double
discrimination in the central labor market as women and as Arab citizens. Because of these
factors, certain “employment refuge” areas are found in the ethnic­local market for Arab women.
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6. Graph 2.3 shows these areas of refuge to be in the public sector, specifically the education sector
and the health services sector. The concentration of Arab women in certain sectors of the
economy endangers these employed Arab women, as they will disproportionately suffer in the
case of employment crises in these sectors. Comparatively, Jewish female employment is spread
among the sectors and therefore Jewish women would not be as affected by certain employment
crises as their Arab female counterparts. The graph shows above all that firstly, more jobs must
be created in the fields of business, science and technology for Arab women, and secondly that
profound changes must be made to the education system which directs Arab women to choose
public sector employment over careers in these economic areas.
Lack of education and job opportunities has created a stunning discrepancy between the
poverty rates of Jewish families and Arab families in Israel. As a result, significant human
capital is wasted, capital that, if invested in by the government, would lead to a much­needed
increase in Israel’s gross national product (GNP). Section 2 of this paper explores specific
weaknesses in the economic situation of Arab women, namely the low participation rates of
less­educated Arab women and the concentration of Arab women in employment refuges of the
economy, and identifies ways in which their situation can be improved for the benefit not only of
the demographic but also of Israel as a whole.
Where It All Begins: The Education Situation of Israeli Arab Students
The Ministry of Education in Israel maintains and operates a segregated system of education for
its Jewish and Arab citizens. Jewish students by and large attend Jewish schools, and Arab
students attend Arab schools. The separation is due to cultural differences, as Arab students do
not learn about the history of Zionism and the Torah in school, and Jewish students do not learn
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7. the Qur’an or the cultural heritage of the Arab world, and is also due to linguistic differences, as
Arab students must study and master literary Arabic, Hebrew, and English while in school, and
Jewish students must master Hebrew and English, and study Arabic for a requisite few years.
Arab students must juggle four languages in all, as their native language is the Levantine dialect
of spoken Arabic.
In the matriculation exams, a series of final exams that Israeli students take toward the
end of high school in a number of subjects like english and math, Arab students perform far
below Jewish students. Only 28% of Arab students achieve full matriculation, meaning they pass
exams in seven core subjects along with one enrichment subject of their choice. This number is
barely half the percentage of Jewish students who fully matriculate. A possible cause of the
different rates of success for the two groups is funding: the Ministry of Education spends about
NIS 192 on each Arab student and over NIS 1,000 on each Jewish student. Arab schools suffer
from overcrowding, with high caps on the amount of students in each class because of a lack of
classrooms, so Arab students receive less one­on­one support at school than Jewish students do.
Moreover, as a result of poor performance on the matriculation exams, only 22% of Arab
students who matriculate meet the standard requirements for admission to universities in Israel.
One of the requirements for university admission is a solid score on the psychometric
exam, similar to the American SAT, a standardized test in Israel that covers english, verbal
reasoning, and mathematics. Arab students are generally not well­prepared for the psychometric
exam, which they take in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and not the spoken Arabic that is the
students’ first language. According to Majid Al Haj, Vice President of Haifa University, Arab
students’ lower success rates on the psychometric exam are caused by language and culture:
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8. "The Arab pupil takes the exam in literary Arabic, which is in effect not his mother
tongue but a second language. And so English is a fourth language. He doesn't receive
any compensation for this. So there are a number of barriers for the Arab student: The
exam is not suitable culturally, there is a difference between literary and spoken Arabic
and, in addition, the Arab classroom ­ from nursery school on ­ is based on the 'banking'
system. Information is deposited to be withdrawn during exams. It does not develop
critical thinking, or creative or logical thinking. When the students reach university, they
fill the humanities faculties. I am not making light of them, but their threshold for
acceptance is lower."
As a part of its 2012 Six Year Plan, the Council for Higher Education (CHE) aimed to improve
Arab students’ preparation for the psychometric exam through providing enhanced access to the
mechinot, ​preparatory classes for the exam, as well as marketing and broadening awareness of
the classes to the Arab population. The plan included excellence scholarships for the top 20%
Arab graduates of the ​mechinot​. The plan’s provisions are still in the process of being made a
reality, and it is too soon to see what the effect will be; however, providing Arab students better
preparation for the psychometric exam is essential to improving their access to higher education
in Israel.
What a Girl Wants: The Primary Education of Arab Women
The unique situation of Arab schoolgirls poses its own problems. While in general, Arab students
are concentrated in fields of study that lead to careers in the public sector, Arab girls in particular
are not offered a broad assortment of specialties starting in high school that lead to high demand
employment. Resources to encourage Arab girls to pursue the fields of science, engineering or
technology are lacking, resources which would aid Arab women’s integration into the central
labor market in these high demand fields and also help eradicate the issue of market failure in the
ethnic­local market by reducing oversaturation in public sector fields and filling vacancies in
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9. private sector ones. In school, two tracks exist for students to choose: the technology track and
the academic track. Gender­wise, 37% of female students are in the technology track and 63%
are in the academic track, while male students are more evenly spread, 47% in the tech track and
53% in the academic track. Drawing from statistics from the budget of the Ministry of
Education, the per­student allocation for students in the tech track is 1.25 times higher than that
for students in the academic track. Increased guidance for Arab female students that informs
them about the demand for tech and science workers is necessary to encourage a more balanced
distribution of female students among the two tracks and even distribution in fields of study in
universities. Arab female students concentrate in the humanities and social sciences in higher
education more so than do Arab men, as shown in graph 4.1, and Arab women’s enrollment in
the fields of math and science and engineering falls short of their male counterparts’. For its part,
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10. according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Israel, the Israeli government passed resolution
4193 that aims to create demand for Arabs graduates in hi­tech fields, allocating NIS 10 million
to integrate 1,000 Arab employees into tech companies in three years. However, measures that
specifically push for Arab women to pursue the technology and science fields are still necessary.
Obstructions to Arab Students Pursuing Higher Education at Israeli Universities
Besides the psychometric exam, studying at Israeli universities is complicated by other official
policies of Israeli universities. Many programs of study have a minimum age requirement,
supposedly to ensure the maturity of students, a policy which, while not a problem for many
Jewish students beginning their study after army service, bars younger Arab high school
graduates who do not serve in the army from pursuing their interests. As a result, Arab students
must either wait two years to start their higher education, or choose, as many students do, to
study in Jordan for university.
The phenomenon known as “Jordanization” seems to have reached its peak in 2009,
when it was reported by Dirasat, a Nazareth­based organization that monitors education, that
over 5,000 Arab students crossed the border to study at Jordanian universities, one­third of
whom were female. Lian, an Arab­Israeli woman studying at Haifa University interviewed for
this paper, states that:
“My relatives studied in Jordan. They decided to study medicine there because it was
hard for them here with the psychometric [exam] and the “Mor” exam [an exam held in
Hebrew for those who wish to enter medical school]. My relatives come from an Arab
village and the language barrier was a bit difficult for them back then. Another one
decided to go and study nursing and he went to Jordan because when he wanted to sign
up for nursing at the age of 18, after he finished high school, there was an age limit.
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11. For Arab­Israeli students, Jordanian universities have the benefit of fewer entrance requirements
and the cultural draw of the Arabic language and culture. However, this choice is in the end
harmful to Arab students, as upon their return to Israel their Jordanian diplomas are often not
recognized by or disagreeable to Israeli employers. The cultural experience students have in
Jordan also makes it more difficult for Arab graduates to integrate into the central labor market.
In addition, studying abroad in Jordan does not give Arab students the opportunity to gain
practice in Hebrew necessary to integration into the workforce in Israel. In order to stem the flow
of Arab­Israeli students across the border for higher education, Arab students must be given
better resources starting in elementary school, and continuing with better preparation for the
psychometric exam, and ending with lowering the minimum age requirement that discriminates
against Arab students.
In 2012, the Israeli Council for Higher Education (CHE) published its six year, NIS 300
million plan to integrate Arab students into Israeli universities. The plan recognizes that ensuring
the graduation of Arab students from institutions of higher education will increase their
integration into the central labor market. Part of the council’s plan includes measures to
encourage more Arab students to gravitate away from choosing programs of study that promise
immediate employment, such as teaching and nursing, and toward engineering and the sciences.
According to a 2012 report by the Inter­Agency Task Force on Israeli­Arab Issues, Arab students
make up 42% of students in pharmaceutical studies programs in Israel, 36% of nursing students,
and 23% of education students, while Arab students are only 6% of students studying
engineering and architecture (not including civil, chemical, or medicinal engineering) and 5% of
business administration students. As previously mentioned, the concentration of students in these
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12. fields leads to oversaturation of the ethnic­local market in these areas, and so there is
unemployment in fields such as teaching while there exist vacancies in fields like finance and
engineering. This pattern is reinforced by lack of information provided to Arab students when
choosing programs of study, due to a lack of appropriate guidance counseling for the students in
high school. The Six Year Plan includes measures for guidance centers to be built in
Arab­majority areas that will provide information on the university admission process and will
encourage Arab students to pursue their studies in the areas of business, technology and science.
A second significant issue for Arab students admitted to institutes of higher education is
the integration into the university’s culture. For many students, especially those from Arab
villages, university will be the first time they must live independently from their Arab
community at home. According to Majid al­Haj, there are inadequate resources for absorption of
Arab students during their first two years of study, when Arab students face the most difficulty
adjusting to the culture gap, and dropout rates are at their highest. Table 2.4 below shows the
amount of Jewish and Arab students at five Israeli universities.
Table 2.4
Institution Total Percent Jewish Students
2011­2012
Total Percent Arab Students
2011­2012
University of Haifa 75.1 24.9
Technion 85.7 14.3
Tel Aviv University 92.6 7.4
Hebrew University 92.8 7.2
Bar­Ilan University 98 2
Source: ​Sikkuy ­ The Association for the Advancement of Civil Equality (2013)
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13. Haifa University is the most diverse, with Arab students consisting of about 25% of the
student body, but the four other major universities have less than 15% Arab students, creating an
environment that easily alienates minority students given the tensions already present in Israeli
society. Part of the CHE plan focuses on “promoting a welcoming campus environment” for
Arab students at Israeli universities, and so schools must have a paid academic advisor especially
for Arab students, whose support would focus on the first year transition to university life. In
order to receive funding from the CHE, universities have to comply with a number of
stipulations, including translating their website to Arabic, and offering a two month workshop to
Arab students aiming to improve their Hebrew and study habits. According to Lian, the language
barrier is the most significant obstacle for Arab students from outside urban areas:
“One kind of support I find lacking at Haifa University is helping the new students who
come from Arab villages and are not used to use Hebrew on an academic level to be
guided and tutored by other excellent Arab students, or teachers who are able to make the
transition easily between the two languages and in return lead to a higher understanding of
the material and the academic requirements.”
Shattering the language barrier and providing specialized guidance are measures that likely will
facilitate Arab students’ successful integration into campus life. Universities also have to create a
long term plan outlining their strategy of support to minority students in order to receive funding
from the CHE. As of the time this report was written, it remains to be seen how many institutes
of higher education will choose to take the steps outlined by the CHE, as no information has
been released by the Ministry of Education, Council of Higher Education, or by individual
universities themselves regarding their applications for funding under the six­year plan.
However, if universities do comply with the requirements and apply for funding, there is reason
to believe that the long­term benefits will far outweigh any short term costs, as Manuel
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14. Trajtenberg stated in 2012: “if there is a single place where the fragmented Israeli society can
become a shared society, I think this place is university campuses.”
In Conclusion
Arab women in Israel face double discrimination in their lives due to their gender and national
identity. As levels of education grow for Arab women, they and their families must still carry the
burdens of high poverty rates and low employment. To improve their situation, higher education
must be made more accessible, and the fields of study pursued more diverse. This can be done
through early encouragement and secondary school guidance to Arab female students to pursue
business, science and technology; increased funding for the Arab school system in order to raise
matriculation rates, and broader access to the psychometric exam. Lastly, to decrease dropout
rates, university campuses must be made more welcoming to minority students through the
offering of services to improve language skills and ease the adjustment to independent life.
Higher education is not the only solution to the issues Arab women face in Israel, but it is a
surefire path toward developing their human capital, a process that will immeasurably aid both
the Arab population and the state of Israel in the long term.
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