Last update - 00:00 13/11/2006
In classrooms with 40 students, two-thirds of the lesson are spent keeping order
By Or Kashti
"You come to a school after a few years at university or college, but nothing you studied prepares you for 40 kids in a classroom," says D., a veteran history teacher at a high school in the center of the country. The problem of overcrowding in classrooms has grown worse over the past few years. According to Education Ministry statistics, nearly one-quarter of all the classes in the school system this year have between 33 and 45 pupils.
However, there are great differences among various sectors in the education system. For example, in the ultra-Orthodox sector, there are merely 10-14 pupils per class in about 11 percent of the classes, while in the state school system, only 1 percent of the classes claim so few pupils. And in the Arab educational sector, fewer than half a percent of classes have only 10-14 pupils.
On the other side of the spectrum, the same differences hold true. In the ultra-Orthodox and the state religious schools, there are 35-39 pupils in only some 7 percent of the classes, as compared with 21.6 percent of the classes in the secular state schools and 31.7 percent in the Arab schools.
While the issue of overcrowding is a major concern for teachers, pupils and parents, it is hardly at the top of Education Ministry's agenda. Education Minister Yuli Tamir went so far as to say, about two months ago, that trying to cut down the number of pupils in the classroom is "an objective which is unrealistic."
800 classrooms not enough
According to the draft state budget for 2007, the ministry will build some 800 new classrooms (but this is less than the number required to cope with the natural increase in the number of pupils.)
"The number of pupils significantly increases all the negative phenomena that take place in the classroom, from violence and noise to lack of attention and lack of interest," says D. "It is enough that one child starts to interfere and then the entire lesson gets held up. The amount of time that is devoted solely to teaching is about one-third of a lesson, approximately 15 minutes. All the rest of the time is spent on matters of discipline and making order, and the overcrowding plays an important part in that."
The ministry has recently completed gathering data about the pupils and the educational institutions for the current school year. A request to interview principals or teachers about means of dealing with the problem of overcrowding was turned down on the grounds that schools were not interested. This is why educators, featured here in this article, are quoted under different names.
The overcrowding has an effect not only on the discipline in the classroom but, first and foremost, also on the quality of education. R., who is principal of an elementary school in the north of the country, says, "I had 40 children to a classroom last year, in all the sixth-grade classes, and it was almost impossible to teach there. For the class to function ... the teacher has to be able to relate to the needs of every pupil."
"Whoever claims that there is no difference between a class with 25 or 35 children apparently has never tried to teach," says Y., the principal of a school with 1,300 pupils.
A 'forsaken outpost'
According to Education Ministry statistics, in the current school year, there are 30-34 pupils in some 25.7 percent of the classes while 35-44 pupils crowd into another 23.4 percent of the classrooms. There has been a slight but steady increase in this trend over the past few years (last year, for example, the figures were 25.4 percent and 23.15 percent respectively.)
"To teach in these classes is like being banished to a forsaken outpost," says D., a history teacher. "The principle usually sends the new teachers to these classes, those who have no standing in the school, or those who are already worn out and no longer have any expectations. The children are able to identify the plight of these teachers and the noise and violence in these classes merely increases. The children are thus harmed in two ways: They both study in overcrowded classrooms in which no one can learn anything, and they also get the less good teachers."