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1 Sivan 5761 - May 23, 2001 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Chinuch Atzmai Rebuffs Attempts to Intervene in Curricula
by Betzalel Kahn

"Throughout the past fifty years, all Israeli Governments have granted Chinuch Atzmai full and absolute educational authority. This authority has prevailed in our institutions since the founding of Chinuch Atzmai by the gedolei ume'orai Yisroel. Thus, it is inconceivable that during the term of office of the current Education Minister, Mrs. Livnat, who is displaying a positive attitude toward Torah chinuch and who only yesterday (Thursday Iyar 24) announced plans to increase Torah study classes in the government school system, a new policy of external intervention in the general curricula of the Chinuch Atzmai schools will be implemented. This aim, which has never been accepted in the system, stems from public pressure being exerted by anti-religious Knesset members."

This statement was made by heads of the Chinuch Atzmai in response to an announcement by the Director of the Education Ministry, Ronit Tirosh, to the effect that the Education Minister plans to obligate chareidi schools to introduce new study programs into their general studies curricula.

In her letter to MK Yossi Paritzki of Shinui, Mrs. Tirosh says that the Education Ministry plans to launch the new plan in the Chinuch Atzmai schools and the Ma'ayan Hachinuch Torah schools very shortly. She stressed that the Education Minister has promised to accord equal educational opportunities to all students. This is necessary, because if graduates of chareidi schools want to pass the bagrut matriculation exams and to compete in the job market, they must secure a general education, she wrote.

Chinuch Atzmai firmly and unequivocally rebuffs this new aim. It hopes that all public announcements for swift implementation of a general studies programs for chareidim have no foundation, but are intended only for propaganda purposes, as a result of Yosef Paritzky's appeal to the High Court.

Rabbonim and educational figures also expressed their opposition to any attempt to intervene in the curriculum of the chareidi education system, as well as their opposition to attempts to compel the Torah educational system to accept new "enlightened" methods whose sole purpose is to divert Jews from their obligations in this world, and to present them with alien values from non-Jewish sources.

 

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