New Article: Shaked, Parental Participation Fees in School Expenses in Israel

Shaked, Haim. “Parental Participation Fees in School Expenses in Israel”. International Journal of Educational Management, 30.1 (2015).

 

URL: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/IJEM-09-2014-0127

 
Abstract

Purpose

Many countries throughout the world provide all children with free education. However, sometimes there are user charges in publically-funded schools worldwide. This study aims to explore parental participation fees in school expenses in Israel, depicting the current situation and analyzing its implications.

Design/methodology/approach

Public documents from Israel were explored, such as guidelines of the CEO of the Ministry of Education, laws, court rulings, publications of the Central Bureau of Statistics, reports of State Comptroller and reports of various committees. Document analysis was a three-stage process – condensing, coding and categorizing. The analysis was based on interpretation of the documents collected, attempting to detect explicit and implicit meanings concerning the topic at hand.

Findings

Findings show that the Israeli policy in regard to parental payments has three main characteristics: (1) high basic payments; (2) payments for learning activities; and (3) insufficient enforcement.

Practical implications

According to the findings of this study, it would be advisable to re-examine the Israeli policy in regard to school charges that parents are required to pay.

Originality/value

There is not much research to be found on the subject of parental participation fees in school expenses. The findings of this study expand the limited knowledge existing on this topic.

 

 

 

New Article: Blass, Trends in the Development of the Education System

Blass, Nachum. “Trends in the Development of the Education System,” Policy Paper Series, Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel. Policy Paper No. 2014.13

 

In recent years, several important changes have taken place in the education system: the trend in the demographic composition of pupils has changed significantly; the resources at the disposal of the education system have grown considerably; and with regards to the work force, all of the primary and a large portion of post-primary education teachers are now part of the most recent educational reforms (“New Horizon” and “Courage to Change”).

The professional education qualifications of teachers have improved, and the great majority of them now have higher education. The learning achievements of Israel’s pupils have also improved, as is evident from the results of the Meitzav tests, matriculation exams and international testing. Furthermore, the achievement gaps between pupil populations have narrowed, including those between Jewish and Arab Israeli pupils. Improvement is also evident in the educational environment of schools. Despite these changes, the financial allocation per pupil in Israel is still low relative to the OECD countries, and despite the narrowing of gaps between various population groups, they remain among the largest of the OECD countries. There is still a long way to go until the quality of what the education system provides to its pupils and until pupil achievement, in both learning and educational terms, meet the standards of the countries that Israel seeks to emulate.

For a PDF of the full policy paper, click here.