President Shimon Peres, marking the start of the new academic year yesterday,
called for free education for every Israeli college and university student
striving for a first degree.
Peres spoke in Tel Aviv at the Levinsky
College of Education, the first Hebrew Teacher’s College in Israel, which is
celebrating its centenary.
The college was founded in 1912 by members of
the Hovevei Zion Movement, and its name perpetuates that of writer, journalist
and leading Zionist activist Elhanan Leib Lewinsky. It was the first academic
institution in the country to train teachers in Hebrew, though a similar claim
is made by the David Yellin College of Education in Jerusalem, which is also
celebrating its centenary.
Equal opportunities for higher education
toward a first degree must be made available to all students, said Peres, who
emphasized the need for greater investment in education not only as a social
need but as an existential necessity.
Israel as a small country without
natural resources, faces major challenges in competing with other countries of
the world, he said. For this reason, it is essential that the population be well
educated so that its collective brainpower can be harnessed for the benefit of
the state. “Our human resources must be given the chance to reach the highest
levels in all domains,” he said.
Capped and gowned, Peres mounted the
stage to receive an honorary teaching degree, at a special opening ceremony for
the academic year from College President Prof. Lea Kasen Levinsky.
The
college is organizing another prestigious centenary event for December when it
will host an international conference on One Hundred Years of Discourse,
Innovation and Research in Education, Teacher Education and Music. The
conference is scheduled for December 10 to 12 at the Dan Panorama Hotel in Tel
Aviv.