Poll: Parents like the schools, but not the system

Israelis are happy with the schools teaching their children, but not the education system itself, according to a poll published Sunday by the Central Bureau of Statistics. The survey was released four days before the start of the new school year.

The survey found that 48 percent of Israelis are dissatisfied with the school system, while 45% view it favorably. The 48% who are unhappy includes 36% who define the education system as “not so good,” and 12% who say it is “not good at all.”

Broken down on ethnic lines, just 41% of Jewish Israelis give the education system a passing grade, as opposed to 74% of Druze and 67% of Muslim respondents.

Asked which institution they would improve first if they were among the country’s decision-makers, a plurality (36%) of respondents said the education system. A distant second was the healthcare system, with 21% wanting to overhaul healthcare first.

But when asked about their child’s specific school or kindergarten, an overwhelming number of parents said they were happy.

Of those polled, 88% with kids in preschool, 85% whose children are in kindergarten, 81% with kids in elementary school, and 81% whose children attend high school all expressed satisfaction with the individual institution.

Among Jewish parents, a total of 85% said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the school attended by their children. Among Arab parents, that number was 69%.

With regards to the fair allocation of resources across the different communities, just 40% of Jews said the education system provided equal services, while a slightly higher number — 47% — in the Muslim and Christian communities gave an affirmative response.

The survey was conducted between April and December 2015, and polled 7,100 people aged 20 or over, from all across Israel.