Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar
Photo: Flash 90
Dr. Zvi Zameret. 'We discovered amazing igorance of subject'
Photo courtesy of Yad Yitzhak-Ben Zvi
Arabs will be obligated to study Holocaust
Week after state comptroller uncovers insufficient coverage of topic in sector, Ynet learns Holocaust will be subject on one of mandatory questions on history matriculation exam. Senior Education Ministry official: We discovered astonishing ignorance on topic in sector. Teachers will also visit Auschwitz
Starting next year, students in the Arab and Druze sector will be obligated to answer a mandatory question on the history matriculation exam regarding the Holocaust, Ynet learned. The Education Ministry will develop methods for teaching the subject for non-Jewish teachers.
As part of the program, a special delegation of teachers and school principals from the sector will visit Auschwitz and other extermination camps. In addition, the Education Ministry will instate a new position within the ministry to integrate Holocaust studies into civics and literature studies in the various sectors.
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Sharon Roffe-Ofir
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The mandatory question on the history matriculation exam was thus far for Jewish students only. For other sectors, the question was deemed optional, and the subject was often not included at all in the official study material.
The new move made by Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar is taking shape just a week after the state comptroller's report, which addressed the matter, was published. State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss wrote that the weight given to the Holocaust on the test in the Arab sector is very low, and is often not even included.
MK Mohammad Barakeh visiting Auschwitz. Teachers will also make trip (Photo: Itzik Harari, Knesset)
The state comptroller also found that the Education Ministry has not formulated a comprehensive study plan for the sector, and failed to include sector representatives in discussions in the relevant committees.
Figures published at the end of last year by the Knesset Research and Information Center showed that 134,672 students throughout the country participated in Holocaust-related activities in 2008. Of these, just 1,595 were students from the Arab sector. There was even lower Arab participation in youth trips to Poland, with just 150 Arab students taking part.
According to Dr. Zvi Zameret, the chairman of the pedagogical secretariat in the Education Ministry, "There has never been a question on the Holocaust on the matriculation exam in the Arab sector. When I took this position, I announced unequivocally that I will insist that there will be. In my opinion, they accepted the matter with deep understanding that the events of WWII and the Holocaust are key studies."
Zameret added that through various studies "we revealed astonishing ignorance among the Arab sector and graduates of Arab schools regarding the Holocaust. The subject is not properly addressed within the education system. Nearly no time was spent on it and the subject was taught without training teachers, who know close to nothing about the subject. From now on, we will train teachers to teach about the Holocaust."
