Report: Arabs prefer Science studies
CBS report says 46% of Arab students majored Biology in 2011; only 30% in Jewish schools. Differences also cited in chemistry, physics and communications
The Jewish religious education system is reported to have a lower rank of students studying science compared to the secular education system. Within the latter, more students who study science subjects are from cities considered to have a higher socioeconomic standing.
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The CBS data is based on a survey held in 2011, aiming to measure weekly teaching hours in classes for an international OECD report.
The report showed that in 2011, only 30% of the students in the Jewish education system studied biology compared to 46% of students in the Arab education system. However, Arab students only study an average of 2.9 hours per week as opposed to 3.7 hours per week in Jewish schools.
Other gaps in favor of the Arab education system as opposed to the Jewish one included physics (31% to 28%), chemistry (39% to 13%), and communication (52% to 21%). In all subjects however, Jewish students had more teaching hours per week.
According to the report, 43% of secular Jewish students and only 6% of religious Jewish students studied Arabic in 2011.
Furthermore, only 31% of secular Jewish students had Judaism studies in their curriculum, while 100% of the students in the religious schools had them.
CBS data also showed significant differences between economically strong and weak Jewish cities: Some 21% of the students affluent cities studied chemistry and 24% studied physics; while only 3% of the students in lower rated cities studies chemistry, and 13% studies physics.
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