The cabinet approved on Sunday a five-year plan outlining the construction of 8,000 new classrooms, mostly in Arab and ultra-Orthodox schools, with a budget of NIS 4.6 billion.

Forty percent of the classrooms will be built in Arab schools and 28 percent of the classrooms are to be built in ultra-Orthodox communities. Both sectors are in desperate need of these facilities.

The education ministry's plan calls for 550 new classrooms to be built in the Arab sector during each of the five years, and some 390 new classrooms each year in ultra-Orthodox schools. The plan also calls for the building of some 460 new classrooms in state-run secular and religious schools each year. In addition, 1,000 new classrooms will be built in order to minimize the current utilization of rooms unfit for use as classrooms.

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The plan also calls for a minimal replenishing of East Jerusalem classrooms. The education ministry maintains that the lack of land reserves in the area is hindering the development of classrooms there.

A joint committee representing the education and finance ministries is slated to formulate a division of the budget among the different sectors, and submit a proposal for cabinet approval within two weeks.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at a press conference in Jerusalem on Sunday that the number of students in Israel's education system will increase by 1.4 percent within the next five years, whereas the number of classrooms will increase by 3.2 percent.

"The ultra-Orthodox public, as well as the Arab public, suffer sub-standard conditions, and there is a sore lack of classrooms within these sectors," Olmert said. "A modern school must be equipped with air-conditioning, overhead projectors, televisions, and technology to enable learning from a remote location. Today the system is more sophisticated and complex than we have been used to in the past, and we are planning to live up to the new standard. The topic of education will determine Israel's quality of life," he added.

Education Minister Yuli Tamir said that the classroom rehabilitation plan is "a socially just move. The construction of the new classrooms will be based on natural population growth, and therefore will focus on the Arab and ultra-Orthodox sectors. The level of infrastructure in both these sectors is poor, and this will be an opportunity to carry out justice and build schools in a modern way that would show respect for the students and the teachers."

Tamir mentioned that the five-year plan would enable long term planning. Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson said that the "infrastructure gap was a shame to Israel. Investing in education is investing in infrastructure."

The plan includes kindergartens, elementary schools, special education facilities and high schools. In accordance with the cabinet's decision, 1,800 classrooms will be built each year within the next two years, and in the following three years, 1,500 classrooms will be erected each year. The cost of the five-year plan is NIS 4.6 billion, with NIS 2.5 billion coming from the state budget, NIS 400 million provided by sources outside the budget and NIS 1.7 billion from the state lottery.