Parents protest against schools taking refugee children

Parents from south Tel Aviv argue that the schools in their area are already weaker than schools in the north.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
Sudanese refugees 248.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Sudanese refugees 248.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Parents in three elementary schools in south Tel Aviv have come out in protest against a plan to absorb 110 African refugee children into their schools, reports Yediot Tel Aviv. The parents say their schools are weak enough as it is, and the refugee children should be sent to schools in other parts of Tel Aviv as well. According to the report, municipal education officials have been working on a plan to absorb 110 refugee children into several elementary schools in south Tel Aviv. But parents from the Hagalil, Hayarden and Nofim schools have all objected to the idea, saying their schools are already weak and the influx of a group of even weaker students would be disastrous. City councilor Shlomo Maslawi has also joined in the parents' protests, writing to the schools to tell them they should refuse to cooperate with the plan. Maslawi wrote that there was "a trend to harm children in the south," and said he and parents would not accept the refugee children "even if this forces us to close the gates of the schools in the south of the city." A parents' representative said parents in the south wanted to help absorb the refugee children, but it was not fair that the children should all be concentrated in this one area. He said the refugee children should be distributed equally in schools throughout Tel Aviv, and the number allowed into any one school should be limited so that local children would not begin to feel they were in a minority. "There needs to be a certain standard and a certain number of refugees who come to study in schools in the south," he said. No comment was reported from the municipality.