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NEWS
Chinuch Atzmai Rebuffs Attempts to Intervene in
Curricula
by Betzalel Kahn
"Throughout the past fifty years, all Israeli Governments
have granted Chinuch Atzmai full and absolute educational
authority. This authority has prevailed in our institutions
since the founding of Chinuch Atzmai by the gedolei
ume'orai Yisroel. Thus, it is inconceivable that during
the term of office of the current Education Minister, Mrs.
Livnat, who is displaying a positive attitude toward Torah
chinuch and who only yesterday (Thursday Iyar 24)
announced plans to increase Torah study classes in the
government school system, a new policy of external
intervention in the general curricula of the Chinuch Atzmai
schools will be implemented. This aim, which has never been
accepted in the system, stems from public pressure being
exerted by anti-religious Knesset members."
This statement was made by heads of the Chinuch Atzmai in
response to an announcement by the Director of the Education
Ministry, Ronit Tirosh, to the effect that the Education
Minister plans to obligate chareidi schools to introduce new
study programs into their general studies curricula.
In her letter to MK Yossi Paritzki of Shinui, Mrs. Tirosh
says that the Education Ministry plans to launch the new
plan in the Chinuch Atzmai schools and the Ma'ayan Hachinuch
Torah schools very shortly. She stressed that the Education
Minister has promised to accord equal educational
opportunities to all students. This is necessary, because if
graduates of chareidi schools want to pass the bagrut
matriculation exams and to compete in the job market,
they must secure a general education, she wrote.
Chinuch Atzmai firmly and unequivocally rebuffs this new
aim. It hopes that all public announcements for swift
implementation of a general studies programs for chareidim
have no foundation, but are intended only for propaganda
purposes, as a result of Yosef Paritzky's appeal to the High
Court.
Rabbonim and educational figures also expressed their
opposition to any attempt to intervene in the curriculum of
the chareidi education system, as well as their opposition
to attempts to compel the Torah educational system to accept
new "enlightened" methods whose sole purpose is to divert
Jews from their obligations in this world, and to present
them with alien values from non-Jewish sources.
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