In Decision on Adalah’s Petition, Supreme Court Affirms Urgent Need for Educational Counselors in Arab Bedouin Schools in the Naqab but Opts for Courses first to Overcome Shortfall of Professionals

On 1 July 2009, the Supreme Court of Israel issued a final decision on a petition submitted by Adalah in 2006 to allocate positions for educational counselors in five schools in the Arab Bedouin unrecognized villages in the Naqab (Negev) in accordance with the Ministry of Education’s own criteria. At the time the petition was submitted, around 3,650 students attended these five schools which had no counselors; overall 85% of Arab Bedouin schools in the Naqab operated without educational counselors, while only 13% of the Jewish schools in the same area lacked them.

The petition was filed by Adalah Attorney Morad El-Sana on behalf of families from the unrecognized villages, the Follow-up Committee for Arab Education, the Regional Council for the Unrecognized Villages in the Naqab, the Naqab Cultural Association and Adalah.

In its decision, the Supreme Court affirmed the urgent need for educational counselors in the Arab Bedouin schools and the necessity to exert all efforts to resolve the problem. However, the court was satisfied with the state's commitment to establish special educational courses to prepare educational counselors at Ben Gurion University and in academic colleges in the South, in order to overcome the acute shortage of counselors in the Arab Bedouin schools.

In its reply to the petition, the state claimed that the shortage of educational counselors in the Naqab schools does not stem from a lack of jobs or in budget allocations, but from a shortage of qualified counselors who are willing to work in the Naqab. Therefore, the state asserted that the opening of training courses for counselors would solve the problem.
The state also claimed that the Ministry of Education provides grants to students who are studying in these tracks in exchange for their commitment to work in Arab schools in the south for several years.
Adalah argued in the petition that the enormous gap in the resources invested in the Arab and Jewish educational systems in the Naqab violates the principle of equality and constitutes discrimination on the basis of national belonging, and is therefore unacceptable. Moreover, the petitioners contended that the failure of the MOE to provide the required number educational psychologists cripples the ability of the school system to provide necessary support and assessment of students, and to seek external assistance for students with serious learning, emotional or behavioral difficulties. In the absence of these services, the educational institutions in these villages are unable to guarantee that pupils’ basic and essential needs are met. The petition emphasized that the dire socio-economic situation and well-documented neglect of the Arab educational system also necessitates the allocation of counselors.
Adalah will follow up on this issue by monitoring the extent to which the state implements its commitments, especially as the court did not specify a time frame for the completion of the establishment of special educational courses and training of educational counselors.
Case Citation:  H.C. 3926/06, Al-Sayed Abed El-Dayem et. al v. The Ministry of Education and The Abu Basma Regional Council (decision delivered 1 July 2009).