Parents demand separate classes for immigrant children

parents are worried that the immigrant youngsters' lack of Hebrew are slowing the progress of the native-born children.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
Parents in Tel Aviv's Hatikva neighborhood are demanding that the city place children of foreign workers in separate schools and kindergartens, complaining that the youngsters are holding back their own Israeli-born offspring, reports Yediot Tel Aviv. At least one kindergarten in the neighborhood now has a majority of foreign-born children, and the proportion of immigrant children in local schools is rising. According to the report, parents are worried that the immigrant youngsters' lack of Hebrew and their different cultures are slowing the progress of the native-born children. "What can you do when there is such a big gap between the children of the foreign workers and our children?" one parent said. "They are delaying the development of our children." But a municipal spokesman said not all the immigrant children could be placed at the special Bialik Rogozin school and kindergarten, which cater for an ethnically mixed population. The spokesman said immigrant children moving up to first grade would be placed at various schools in the next school year.