Native-speakers' English classes get reprieve

The Education Ministry will fund classes for native English speakers in the school system next year, in a dramatic turnaround that effectively ensures the future of the beleaguered program.

The ministry has also decided that for the remainder of the current school year, it will provide dovrei anglit classes, as they are known, for students in cities that had difficulty funding the program because of municipal budgetary constraints.

The decision is a victory for Anglo immigrant parents, who have campaigned vigorously to keep the program in school systems across the country. The decision means that their children will not be forced to sit in English classes alongside children who are learning basic words like "cat" or the letters of the alphabet.

Last year, the ministry announced that it would cancel the separate classes for native English speaking children around the country in a decision that sparked a flood of protest letters, as well as legal action. The program was originally offered to thousands of native English speakers in schools around the country as part of TALAN (tigbur limud nosaf), an enrichment program that is recognized by the Education Ministry but cost parents extra money. The arrangement allowed the native English students to go to a separate room for English lessons that are at a far higher level than those of their Hebrew-speaking peers; while a regular class may have been learning the alphabet, children in the native speakers' classes were already reading.

The ministry, however, said that the English program for native speakers could not continue through TALAN because it was not available to all students. Before the start of the 2007-08 school year, the ministry said that the municipalities -- rather than parents -- needed to cover the cost of the separate English program. But not every city has been able to successfully implement the project.

Comprehensive solution

"The decision is to provide a comprehensive solution for everyone," a ministry spokesperson said of the policy. "At this point, we still need to map out the number of students who require dovrei anglit. Some classes have two children, while others have 25. We're now examining the issue."

The spokesperson said it was part of an acknowledgment regarding the importance of the English-speaking community in Israel, as well as a desire to continue promoting immigration for Western countries.

The decision came last Wednesday at an ill-attended Knesset Education Committee meeting. Committee chair MK Rabbi Michael Melchior (Labor) was the only MK present for the discussion.

It still remains unclear, however, how many hours will be budgeted as part of the ministry's decision.

Anglo parents and teachers have welcomed the decision. "It's a relief to know that our children will continue to be challenged and won't have to sit in a classroom where they will be bored," because of the low level of English instruction, said Michele Shaul, an English teacher in Hod Hasharon, who also has a son in the program, yesterday. "Many parents have been hiring a private tutor and it's been a significant expense. The ministry has finally realized that the only solution was to have separate classes."