Adalah to the Mayor of Haifa and the Ministry of Education: Delaying the Opening of a Special School for the Arts for Arab Children Infringes their Right to Education
On 8 March 2007, on behalf of the Association for the Development of Arab Education in Haifa and the Parents' Committee at the �al-Karma B� elementary school in Haifa, Adalah sent a letter to the Mayor of the Haifa, the Director of the Northern Division of the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the General Director of the MOE, seeking their prompt action to open an elementary school for the arts for Arab children by the beginning of the coming school year, 2007-2008. Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher is representing the Association and the Parents' Committee.
The request revolves around the parents' demand to turn the �al-Karma B� elementary school into an officially-recognized special school for the arts, which would be the first of its kind for Arab students in Haifa. Currently, a kindergarten for children aged between four and five years with a special arts-based curriculum with an enrollment of 23 children is already operating. The parents are demanding that children who will enter the first and second grades in the coming school year will be able to study according to the school's arts-based curriculum. Further, over the long-term they wish for the entire school from the first to the eighth grades to follow part of this special curriculum. Significantly, there is already a special school for the arts in Haifa for Jewish children.
A request to establish the school was sent in October 2006. However, the only response received by the parents was that the issue was being dealt with. Several days ago, a representative of the Association for the Development of Arab Education in Haifa contacted the National Council for Private Schools in the MOE by telephone. However, he was surprised to discover that no request had been received by the National Council, despite the fact that there are clear and unequivocal administrative directives which determine the stages for processing requests of this kind and a timetable.
Adalah argued that the continued delay will harm the children studying at the kindergarten, because the deadline for registering in first grade classes for the coming school year has passed. Therefore, the children may be unable to register at any school. Adalah further argued that the failure to open the school would violate the right of education, in light of the critical state of Arab education in Haifa, which makes it difficult for parents to find an appropriate educational framework for their children.
