On 30 July 2008, Adalah sent a letter to the Attorney General on behalf of the Municipality of Tamra demanding the establishment of a technological education center/transitional school for the Arab students in the town of Tamra.
The center would aim to provide an appropriate educational framework for 8th to 12th grade students whose needs are not catered for by the regular educational system and are at risk of dropping out, and for those who have already dropped out. The center would both meet the therapeutic and educational needs of these students and provide them with vocational training to help them to properly integrate into society after their secondary education. The target group of the center is students with low educational achievements but who are interested in learning a vocational profession.
There are approximately 9,258 students at the various schools in Tamra, of whom approximately 300 are in need of such a center. 114 of these students have already dropped out of the educational system and have not been integrated into an alternative educational system. Roughly a further 100 students at primary and secondary school levels are at risk of dropping out, and 157 students are currently studying in a technological colleges outside the city (in Shefa-Amr, Yarka, Haifa or al-Makr), and must travel long distances to study, hindering their regular attendance. Around 36 other young boys are attending local treatment centers for youth at risk, but are in need of an educational framework like the proposed technological education center.
As Adalah emphasized in the letter, the department of administration for secondary education within the Ministry of Education (MOE) recommended the establishment of a technological education center in Tamra in 1998. However, despite the fact that the Municipality of Tamra pursued the issue, this recommendation has not been implemented. In response to the municipality’s inquiries, the director of the MOE’s department of education and welfare (“Shahar”) claimed that there was no need to establish a technological education center due to the existence of other educational institutions in Tamra. Further, even if there were such a need, cuts made to the budget of the MOE precluded the establishment of the center.
In the letter, Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher argued that not opening a technological education center in Tamra would cause serious harm to the students who have dropped out of school or were forced in one way or another to leave the regular educational system. The center would enable such students to complete their secondary education and obtain “Bagrout” matriculation certificates, qualify them for a profession suited to their abilities, and facilitate their full integration into society. Not opening the center would also harm the right of these students to an education, given that the Compulsory Education Law – 1953 and the State Education Law – 1953 oblige the MOE to provide them with free and appropriate education.
The Compulsory Education Law has been recently amended (Amendment no. 29), to apply to young men and women up until the age of 18, increased from 15. Following the amendment, the MOE adopted a program to implement the amendment, which includes establishing technological education centers. Adalah therefore argued that the demand for a technological education center in Tamra coincides with the MOE’s own program to implement amendment 29 of the Compulsory Education Law.