Israel ranks low on computer per student ratio list

OECD survey shows Israel ranked 49th out of 64 countries, similar to Albania; huge gaps in facilities between rich and poor communities.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
classroom 311 AP (photo credit: AP)
classroom 311 AP
(photo credit: AP)
Israel was ranked 49th out of 64 countries in the ratio between the number of students in a class and the number of computers the school has, an OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development) research survey revealed.
The OECD report also revealed an enormous gap in education facilities between rich and poor communities.
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According to the data, the ratio between the number of students in the average classroom and computers at school is 0.37, similar to the ratio in Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Panama and Albania.
However it is much lower than other countries in the study, such as New Zealand (1.16) Australia (1.02) United States (0.91) and Germany (0.60).
The report focused on data regarding computing infrastructure but did not address other important aspects related to ICT at all including the use of computers to support teaching and learning processes and training of teachers for computer use.
The report highlights that the Ministry of Education published a program at the end of 1993 dealing with the application of computing in the education system.
This program was intended to provide one computer per ten students in all schools.
Previous documents prepared by the Knesset Research and Information Center Committee revealed that the target of a computer for every ten students has not yet been acheived.
The current report revealed that computing in the education system was characterized by a lack of uniformity, which was reflected by significant gaps between the level of computing in homes and local authority facilities such as schools.
The OECD survey also highlighted that between 2008-2006 there has been a continuous decline in the level of computer equipment provided in the education system. This was reflected in both the average number of students per computer station and the level of computers, which in many cases have not been replaced by newer models.
This data contradicts updated data provided by the Ministry of Education which shows that last school year (as of September 2010) there has been a continued improvement in the level of computing in schools.
Data from the recent OECD report showed that there are still very significant gaps in the level of computing between local authorities in Israel.
The local authorities in which the level of computing is extremely poor are almost all non Jewish.