The education system in Israel reflects Israeli society as a whole, comprising all the streams and groups that exist within it. According to the document, The Education System in Israel – Central Issues Dis - cussed in the Committee for Education, Culture and Sport of the Knesset Research and Information Center, 2013, written by Ety Weissblay, the education laws in Israel recognize three types of institutions: (1) offi - cial education, comprising institutions owned by the state in the state stream, the state-religious education stream, and in recent years also the state-ultra-Orthodox education stream; (2) recognized education that is not official, comprising institutions that are not owned by the state, mostly schools belonging to Ultra-Orthodox school systems or other Ultra-Orthodox institutions; and (3) institutions that have an exempt status, mostly Talmud Torah schools for boys.
The Education Ministry recently published a list of all the edu - cational institutions under its supervision (the list is updated to 2015; this article focuses only on the Hebrew education institu - tions). An examination of the years when the schools were found - ed and the number of pupils who attended them reveals a number of interesting points.
The oldest schools are the Alliance School in Haifa, which accord - ing to the records was founded in 1860, and the schools belonging to Beit Yisrael (both general studies and religious studies schools) in Tel Aviv, established in 1870. The list shows that the total number of schools founded before the establishment of the state was 84, and they were attended by 64,360 pupils. At the other end of the spec - trum, each year a few dozen new schools are opened. For example, in 2014, 112 schools were established, and the previous year the number was 118.
In recent decades, a trend can be identified in the increasing num - ber of ultra-Orthodox educational institutions being opened. The need to open these institutions is the result of the high natural in - crease in the population among the haredi sector. The percentage of the haredi schools in operation today that were founded since 1990 stands at 91% in Israel (not including Jerusalem), and 86% in Jerusa - lem. During these years there was a significant increase in the schools in the independent school systems as well as state recognition of these schools; these changes have left their mark on the education system.
In the state schools the percentage of schools that are relatively new is lower; the findings for these schools show that they have more vet - eran institutions. Some 45% of all state schools in Israel were founded before 1970, with 38% of these schools being located in Jerusalem. Compared with the rest of the country, a higher percentage of the schools in the state stream in Jerusalem were founded between 1970 and 1990: 27% of the state education schools and 25% of the state reli - gious schools in Jerusalem, as compared to 20% and 21% respectively, in the rest of the country. This data correlates with the establishment of new neighborhoods and the expansion of Jerusalem following the Six Day War.
Translated by Gilah Kahn.