Jerusalem is back to school

Jerusalem is a distinct district in the Education Ministry, with the largest number of students – 275,216 – enrolled for the new school year.

By PEGGY CIDOR
HOW MANY new students will be entering Jerusalem’s education system? 18,393. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
HOW MANY new students will be entering Jerusalem’s education system? 18,393.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Jerusalem is a distinct district in the Education Ministry, with the largest number of students – 275,216 – enrolled for the new school year. This is excluding students at haredi schools, who study in Yiddish and do not cooperate with the official system.
The capital’s education system is also the most complex, and includes a public system divided into religious and secular parts; a haredi system, which includes an independent system and a system that is unofficial – meaning it is only partly supervised by the municipality and only partly budgeted; an Arab system, which has public and a private parts; and quite recently, a new haredi system that is officially recognized and has accepted mandatory curriculum.
In each of their systems, Jerusalem will inaugurate 205 new classrooms this year.
For 16,546 students, this will be their last year, as they conclude their 12 years of schooling. Yet there will be 18,393 new students beginning their respective 12 years.
In terms of money, this means that the education administration of Jerusalem has a budget of NIS 2.1 billion, of which NIS 190 million have been budgeted to prepare for the new school year, which includes renovations and building new classrooms.
A new public secular high school focusing on computerized learning skills will open this year in the Har Homa neighborhood, which kicks off their first year with 65 new students who registered. This new high school will start with three seventh grades classes, with plans to add more every year.
Another new school opening this year will be a religious public primary school in French Hill, and it will have a classroom for special needs children in order to better accommodate them, as they would often have to travel across the city for an available school.
Two new schools are also opening in the Arab sector, the Alwaddi School for Excellency and the Al-Biwan Elementary School in the Umm Lison neighborhood. Both schools are coed and follow the Israeli curriculum.
In addition, the Jerusalem municipality is opening the first public conservatory for the Arab sector in Sheikh Jarrah – the Ibda School for Arts.