Israelis feel fractured school system cannot promote a shared identity – poll
IDI survey finds 45% of Jews, 16% of Arabs want schools to focus on ‘national unity’; many Israelis want hostages discussed in schools, but less so on religious and political right
Gavriel Fiske is a reporter at The Times of Israel
A plurality of Israelis feel that with a new school year beginning as the Israel-Hamas war continues, the education system should prioritize “national unity and cohesion,” adjust the curriculum to address current events, and engage in discussions with students about the hostages in Gaza, a poll has found.
The online poll, whose results were released last week, also found that in contrast to previous survey results, a growing number now feel that the Israeli education system, which divides schools into separate tracks based on religiosity and language, does not “help promote a shared narrative for all groups in Israeli society.”
The online poll, “The 2024-2025 School Year Opens Amidst the War,” was conducted in August by the Israel Democracy Institute’s Education Policy Program and Viterbi Center for Public Opinion, and captured “a representative sample of the Israeli population aged 18 and above, including 500 Jewish and 100 Arab respondents.”
Although the poll showed some consensus in regard to how the education system should approach the war, sharp differences in opinion between Jewish and Arab citizens, between Jews with different levels of religious observance, and between left, center and right-wing political camps were also revealed.
When asked what the “most crucial theme the education system should convey in the upcoming school year” should be, 45% of Jewish respondents replied, “The special importance of maintaining national unity and cohesion during the war.”
This was the answer for only 16% of Arab respondents, who preferred either the “willingness to make concessions to end the war or for the sake of peace” or “the special importance of protecting human and civil rights even during wartime,” at 27% and 22.5%, respectively.
Notably, only 8% of Jewish respondents indicated that “protecting human and civil rights” during wartime should be the central educational theme.
The Jewish respondents were self-categorized as “ultra-Orthodox,” “religious,” “traditional-religious,” “traditional-secular” and “secular.” A plurality of Jews from all streams indicated that “national unity and cohesion” should be a main educational focus, led by a full 60% majority of “ultra-Orthodox” respondents, as compared to 38% of “secular” Jews. The other groups ranged from 46% to 51% for the same question.
Other possible themes received a variety of responses, with 23% of “religious” Jews indicating that “the value of sacrifice for the people and the state” should be an educational priority, a result far above the other Jewish groups. A focus on “the importance of defeating the enemy, even if it prolongs the war” was desired by 20% of “ultra-Orthodox” and 21% of “traditional-religious” Jews, while “secular” Jews indicated a greater preference than other groups for teaching about concessions as a pathway to end the war or the value of protecting human and civil rights.
In political terms, 51% of those who self-identified as on the “right” and 46% of those who self-identified as in the “center” prioritized teaching national unity and cohesion, as compared to just 23% of those on the “left,” the majority of whom (29.5%) prioritized the “special importance of protecting human and civil rights during wartime.”
Fifty-three percent of Jewish respondents and 51% of Arab respondents agreed “that teachers should engage students in a discussion on the return of hostages and examine the moral significance of the demand to bring them back at any cost.”
Jewish responses to the hostage question were starkly divided along religious lines, with 32% of “secular” Jews “strongly agreeing” and 34.5% “somewhat agreeing” that the return of hostages should be discussed in schools. Just 3.6% and 22% of “ultra-Orthodox” respondents felt the same, respectively. That community overwhelmingly indicated that they “strongly disagreed” (43.6%) or “somewhat disagreed” (29%) that bringing the hostages home should be discussed in schools.
When analyzed in terms of political affiliation, for respondents on the “right” “the level of agreement (strongly agree and somewhat agree) with the statement was significantly lower (40%) that among those who identify with the Center (67%) and the Left (77%),” the survey found.
“The gaps observed in the current survey between the Right and Left regarding classroom discussions reflect similar trends and reflect the broader public controversy over this issue,” the authors wrote.
A majority of respondents (64%) indicated that they “strongly agreed” or “somewhat agreed” that “the education system should adjust the curriculum due to the ongoing war, even if it means reducing study material and altering content.”
These results were consistent across population groups, indicating to the survey authors that “there is a broad understanding among the public that the education system must adapt to the current reality, even if it comes at the expense of existing study materials and curricula.”
The poll’s final question addressed the nature of Israel’s state education system, where schools are divided into secular, religious, ultra-Orthodox and Arabic tracks, and asked, “Do you agree or disagree with the statement that because the Israeli education system is divided into streams, it cannot help promote a shared narrative for all groups in Israeli society?”
A slim majority of responders (51%) agreed, broken down to 48% of Jewish responders and 65% of Arabs. This was in contrast to the same question as posed in a 2022 poll by the same organization, which found that only 39% of Jews and 47% of Arabs agreed with the statement.
The poll showed clear changes in thinking about this issue among Jewish respondents. In 2022, 36% of “ultra-Orthodox” Jews agreed that Israel’s divided education system cannot provide a shared narrative, but in 2024, 45% agreed with the statement.
Other Jewish groups showed a similar jump, with 48% of “traditional-religious” Jews agreeing with the statement in 2024, as opposed to 33% in 2022; 47% of “traditional-secular” Jews in 2024 as compared to 34% in 2022; and 54% of secular Jews in 2024 agreeing, compared to 47% in 2022.
Only Jewish respondents who self-identified as “religious” showed little change in responding to the same question: in 2024, 32% agreed and 58% disagreed that Israel’s education system cannot provide a shared narrative to Israel’s citizens, compared to 29% and 61% in 2022, respectively.
Nonetheless, “the comparison between the survey data then and now reflects a growing public recognition of the education system’s limitations in promoting a common Israeli foundation, highlighting the need to reassess the education system’s role in today’s context,” the survey authors noted.
