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Muslim and religious Jewish girls

6. As the employment level among Arabic females is very low (Al-Haj, 1995;

4.3. State-religious Jewish girls

4.3.1. The Religious high schools for boys and girls

Religious high schools for boys and girls, whether mixed-sex institutions that include girls and boys’ classes, or separate schools, have been established in almost all Israeli cities, as well as in smaller settlements, e.g. Kibbutzim and agricultural private residences, where each school is serving the population of a few neighboring settlements (Azrieli, 1987).

These institutions have been meant to serve the needs of the local communities, rather than those of any elite populations (Ayalon, 1994, 1995, Ayalon

& Yogev, 1996). The policy of accepting traditional but not necessarily religious pupils, valid in state religious elementary schools, is applied also in high school.

Pupils who wish to study in a religious high school have to commit themselves not to violate the Jewish law in public, but they are not spied after in the circle of their families. This policy enabled many oriental Jews to send their children to school belonging to this stream even when not strictly religious.

4.3.1.1. Ethnic differences in the state religious high school

The policy of the Israeli ministry of education as that of the local authorities is not to publish formal statistics of the ethnic origin of students attending any specific educational stream of school. However, there are some facts providing that the percentage of students whose origin is Asia-Africa is much higher in the state religious school than in the general one.

1. Knowledge about the religiosity level of new comers that have arrived at Israel since the late 40ies and up to these days. While those arriving from Arabic countries were mostly traditional – if not strictly religious

– most new comers from Europe and America in the last 60 years, and the Russians Jews arriving in the 70ies and 90ies were non-religious.

Thus, most of the children in state-religious schools were oriental, while the majority of secular students were European-American.

2. The number of religious schools and their locations: religious school are located either in less well-of suburbs of large towns, like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, or in smaller cities, mainly developing settlements where most of the population is oriental.

3. Statistics about the percentage of students examined in oral low at the 4+ points level shows, that between 1985-1989 an average of 18.3% of European-American students took this matriculation exam, in comparison to almost 29% of oriental students (Statistics, Israel, 1990, table 22.24). Oral low is a compulsory subject in the religious school where almost 98% of students take this exam, while in the general education only an average of 0.4% choose it (ibid). Thus it can be concluded that the percentage of oriental students in the religious school is at least 50% higher than that in the general school.

As we have shown in chapter 2, ethnic disparities in the Israeli education system are quite large. My study will take the ethnic origin of the students into consideration, because such differences might influence motivational, educational, psychological, familial, and social components no less than any other components involved in the learning of mathematics.

4.3.1.2. Girls in the religious school

Girls are a vast majority among Israeli high school students in general and in the religious mixed school in particular. The main reason for this phenomenon in the general school is the relative high percentage of boys and the low percentage of girls learning in vocational schools. The main reason for the low number of boys in the mixed religious school and to a smaller extend the higher dropout rate of boys is the high percentage of boys attending a boarding schools, Yeshiva high school for boys aged 15-18 and a preparatory junior high school (“Mechina”) for 12-15-year-olds, which is either a day- or a boarding school.

The girl who attends a religious high school is in many cases a very good student, who could have been accepted to any elite boarding school. She prefers to

live at home, not to have to travel to school if possible, and continue her studies with a large group of her elementary school friends. Quiet often this girl has a hobby that she cherishes, and she knows that once she is away form home for the whole week or for as much as 12 hours daily she would not be able to develop it. If this girl is not willing to give up her hobby – in most cases an artistic one (David & Zorman, 1999;

Rapoport, & Garb, 1998; Rapoport, Garb, & Penso, 1994; Rapoport, Penso, &

Garb, 1995; Rapoport, Penso, & Halbertal, 1996), she would prefer a school more flexible about her frequent absences caused by rehearsal and performances.

4.3.1.3. Girls in math and science in the religious school

Many Israeli studies have already found, that gender gaps in math and science in the state religious schools are smaller than in the general, secular education system (Ayalon, 1994, 1995; Ayalon, & Yogev, 1996, 1997; David, 1998b, 2000a, 2000c, 2002a). Ayalon (1994, 1995) has given three explanations to this phenomenon: 1.

The comparatively high prestige of religious studies, part of which are blocked from the religious girl, pushes her into studying more science and math. 2. The religious girl is educated to provide for her future household, since the ideal in this community is that the husband continues his religious education after his marriage. Thus, for acquiring a good profession she studies math and science. 3. Learning mathematics at a high level is not a requirement for learning physics, chemistry, or biology in the religious school. All these explanations are somewhat problematic. 1. Since the beginning of the 90ies a gradual increase in the percentage of religious girls learning oral low at the highest possible level has been observed (Statistics, Israel, 1990, 2000) simultaneously with the percentage of religious girls participating in the highest-level math and science (ibid). 2. State religious men participate in the labor force at an identical level to secular men; it is the Ultra-Orthodox men who prefer studying even after getting married (Makover, 27.12.2002). 3. The fact thatlearning high level mathematics is not a must for learning high level science in the religious school might explain high frequency of learning science in both boys’ and girls’ religious schools, and thus cannot contribute to the decrease of the participation gender gap in this sector. In addition, while it explains high level science participation in the religious school, it does not explain the lack of gender gaps in math participation in the religious school.

Ayalon (1995) and Ayalon and Yogev (1996, 1997) have found, that it has been easier for female students to study high level science in religious institutions, since in most cases these schools do not demand a 5-point math level for the studying of physics or chemistry at the 4+-point levels, and did not demand a 4-point level math for the studying of biology at the 4+-point level. In addition, because religious schools are either single-sexed or have only single-sex classes (Lasloy & Bar-Lev, 1993), girls do not have to compete with boys on vacancies in scientific tracks (Ayalon, 1995). This policy is certainly responsible – at least partially – for the fact that the percentage of female students entitled to the matriculation certificate who were examined at the 5 point-level chemistry was 73 in the religious education system and only 54 in both the general and Arabic education systems (David, 2000c). In physics 30% of the state religious girls took the 5-point matriculation exam in comparison to 25% in the secular sector (Statistics, Israel, 2002a), in biology 65% of the girls in the religious sector and 63% in the secular one took the 5-point exam, and in mathematics the percentage of girls taking the 5-point exam was 43 – as in the secular sector (ibid).

4.3.2. Religious girls in higher education

There is no official statistics of participation of state religious girls in higher education. However, some data is available regarding participation in general and the choice of science in particular.

Advising religious girls learning in single-sex institutions to continue their higher education in religious teachers colleges rather than in universities is a clear policy (Neria, 1980). In spite of this recommendation a high percentage of female graduates of state religious schools continue their higher education at the Bar Ilan [religious] University (El’or, 1998), where more than half of the students define themselves as religious (Information brochure for new candidates, 2002b). There have been some major advantages to females at the Bar Ilan University:

1. In the year 1996 two thirds of ALL titles awarded by the Bar Ilan University were given to females (Statistics, Israel, 1998, table 4);

2. Females learning for the BA at the Bar Ulan University, who are mostly religious, consisted in 1996 more than 65% of the students when the overall Israeli percentage was just 55% (ibid, ibid). 63% of those awarded advanced degrees at this university were females, in comparison to 51% of the Israeli average;

4. In scientific subjects, where the Israel percentage of female participation is low, such as mathematics, statistics, and computers science (average about 38%, Statistics, Israel, 1998), physical sciences (Average about 40%, ibid), biological sciences (about 66%, ibid) the percentage of females at the Bar Ilan University was much higher:

49%, 54%, and 81% respectively (ibid).

4.3.3. Summary

Although learning mathematics at the highest possible level has not been a requirement for studying science in the religious system (Ayalon, 1994, 1995), 43%

of all students in this educational stream have chosen to learn mathematics at the highest possible level, as in the general system (Statistics, Israel, 2001a). In spite of the fact that until the 80ies many high prestige religious girls-schools did not offer their students to study physics at this level, girls in the religious sector not only outperform girls in the secular system in participation in high-level physics, but there is a constant increase in the percentage of religious girls studying high level physics (Statistics, Israel, 1990, 2000), while the percentage of girls in the general system who study physics at this level has not increased substantially during the 90ies (ibid).

In the year 2000 73% of the religious students taking the 5-point chemistry matriculation exam were females in comparison to only 54% in the secular system (Statistics, Israel, 2001a).

We can conclude that the religious sector in general and females in this sector in particular deserve more research than if has been granted until now. It should be examined whether there are differences between it and the general school caused by different values – either from home or from. Characteristics of teachers in these streams should be compared, as has been already done in primary works studying the Arab sector (Abu-Saad, 1999; Mittelbertg & Lev-Ari, 1999). But above all it should be carefully examined whether the advantages of the religious school stems from its being singles-sexed. In this case it should be asked whether separate education for boys and girls might not harm boys, as was found in many studies (e.g. Baker, &

Riordan, 1998; Baker, Riordan, & Schaub, 1994; Jimenez & Lockheed, 1989;

Riordan, 1990) and under what circumstances single-sex classes should be recommended for the general school as well.

Chapter 5: