A staggering 22,000 Palestinian children are unaccounted for in statistics kept by the Jerusalem municipality.
Ir Amim said the severe classroom shortage in municipal schools forced many parents to pay high fees to unofficial schools. Their children often studied in overcrowded and improvised classrooms, lacking heating, air-conditioning, libraries, computers and science labs.
As a result, more than a third of Palestinian pupils fail to matriculate -- the highest figure in either Israel or the occupied territories.
The crisis facing East Jerusalem schools follows threats from Israeli officials that independent church schools serving some of Israel's Palestinian minority will be forced to close unless they submit to government control.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
