Selected aspects in the development of public education in 1920-1946

Author: Judith L. Wolf

Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/2885

This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries.

Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 1981

Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Boston College Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

SELECTED ASPECTS IN THE DE\IELOP}{ENT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN PALESTINE L92O-1946

by Judith L. Wolf

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Graduate Schoo1 of Arts and Sciences of Boston College

Boston College 19 81 O t9B1 by Judirh L. worf BOSTON COLLEGE GRADUATE SCHOOL

The thesis of Judith L. Wolf e n t itled Selected Aspects in the Development of

Public Education in Palestine L9Z0-1 g 46 .

Doctor of philosophy Boston Collage has been

...... $pril 8 , 1981 Drtr TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... e.r.....r..... r...... i

ABSTRACT ....!...... r.....t...... Il-

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

INTRODUCTION aaaaaaaaaaataaaaaaaaaaaaataaaaaaaaaala

CHAPTER

I. THE BACKGROUND OF BRITISH EDUCATIONAL POLICY IN PALESTINE .'...... t. 8 British Colonial Educational Policy in the Era Preceding the l{andate ...... 10 British Educational Policy and the Mandate ...... o...... o...... 2L SUmmary ...... r...... o. 33

II. ARAB EDUCATTONAL IIERITAGE ...... 35

The Ottoman Empire and Education ....r.... 38 Islamic Education Heritage ...... 46 Missionary Education ...... r... - 57 SUmmafy ...... o...... 67 III. JEWISH EDUCATIONAL HERITAGE ...... I".. 69 Thg Sgtting ...... r...... o...... 72 Traditional Educational Heritage . r - . . . . - - 82 Traditional Schools .. o...... o. 89 The Movement to Modern Education .....-..' 95 SUmmafy ...... r. o r ...... 110

IV. ARAB EDUCATION AND SOCIETY ...... O .. " " 'LLz Thg Land and the People .o...... ,...... 119 Po1itical Discontent and Education ...... -126 Fiscal Constraint and School Expansion . . .135 SUmmafy o...... o...... ' t tL49 CHAPTER

V. ARAB PUBLIC SCHOOLS ...... 153

Administration ...... |'...... ,..... 156 Elementary Education in Boys' Schools in Towns ...... I59 Secondary Education for Boys ...... ,.,.... 120 Rural Schools ...... -...... lTB Elementary and Secondary Education for Girls ...... r... r r 18? SUmmafy ...... r...... L94 vr. HEBREW EDUCATION AND SOCIETY ...... DI' L97

Jgwish Life in Palestine ...... ,...., 199 Education and Nationalism ...... 206 Trends and the Administrative Structure . o...... o.... r...... 214 Financial Structure ...... , 229 SUmmafy .... i...... r.... o...... r...... 237

VII. HEBREW PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM ....r.O...... 24L Elementary Education o...... o...... 247 Sgcondary Education ...... o...... o... 264 College Preparatory Schools ...... 265 Teachers t Training Colleges . . o ...... o . 270 Vocational Education o...... o.. o.....,.. . 273 Summary ... o...... r...... 278

VIII. coNcLUSroN ...... o f....r...... ,,.o. o. . 282 SELECTED BTBLTOGRAPHY ...... o... f ... . 294 i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to acknowledge my gratitude and indebtedness to my major professors, Dr. Pierre D. Lambert and Dr. Edward J. Power. Their insight into the history and philosophy of education, their standards of scholarship, their commitment to their discipline and students provided an invaluable background and. foundation for the develop- ment of this research. Dr. Pierre D. Lambert is also the dissertation director. His generous and constant encourage- ment and guidance were of great assistance in this study. l_ l-

ABSTRACT

fnitially the British administration in Palestine assumed responsibility only for Arab public schooLs. A dual school system evolved when the government designated as public, Zionist schooLs hitherto considered private. This change brought increased government subvention and supervision, but on a more limited scale than that of Arab schools functioning completely under the government I s authority. The Hebrew system was nearly autonomous. This study uses the methodology of historical research to investigate the development of pr.rJrlic education from Lg20 to 1946 and seeks to ga j-n an r:nders tanding of each schooL system rather than explicitly to probe for comparisons between the two. Though the transplantation of western education predated the mandatory era, its course was uneven. Most sponsors of non-tradj-tional schools were foreign. Religious , linguis tic and cultural differenees separated schools. The legacy of

the ottoman e ra had impl ication s for the mand.ate . Within the Jewish sector the nucleus of modern Hebrew schools was a concomittant of broad societal changes advanced by the Zionist movement. For a variety of reasons the Arab nationalist movement was not in a position to affect society's transition to modernity or educational development. The Arab coilununity had less expe rience with western j-nstitut j-ons and ]. Ll- greater dependeney on government resources than had the Jewish conmunity. The socio-economic, demographic, political and cultural characteristics of each sector as well as Palestine t s status as a mandate under British authority were among the factors contributing to the development of the two public school systems. Palestine in L920 had the complex task of condensing j,nto decad.es the centuries of gradual transition to publ ic education experienced in the west. Both systems gave priority to elementary education, but from a fundamenLally different vantage. This study suggests that the political context in which the systems evolved. affected some, but not all of their characteristics. In such areas as per capita investmenf, the rate of expansion, provisions for popular authority, equali- zati-on of opportunity for urban and rural pupils , the s tandards of the conmon school and the degree of the nationalistic ori- entation of the eurriculum, the systems differed. The poli- tical and ideological variations of the trends affected Hebrew education. With the exception of the Labor Trend, schools were subject-oriented, slighted vocational instruction and had in- tensive, inflexible curricula. Each system relied on post- elementary institutions to prepare teachers. The policy of relying on the private sector to complement secondary f aci lities had a practi-cal , short term benefit, but it also had discriminatory consequences and structural disadvan- tages. iv

Problems such as shortened programs to train teachers, selected access to secondary schools and the imbalance of college preparatory and vocational studies tend to accompany the introduction of public educational systems in developing areas. They appear to be more a characteristic of a stage of educational history than of a particular form of govern- ment. The mandatory era concluded a cycle in Palestine t s edu- cational history. It embraced Christian and lulose1m pupils in one sys tem r urlif ied in a second one the majority o f Hebrew schools, and concluded the transfer of the common school from a religious and traditional domain to the responsibility of the government. v

TABLES AND CHARTS

r. The Education Department 's Budget Estimates of Expenditurg ...... r..,...... o... 139 2. Secondary School Enrollments 1945-1946 .. L44 3. Percentage of Arab primary pupils According to Area and Sex Receiving Four to Six Years of Education ...... o...... l 44 4. school Age children and school Enrolrments in All schools, July 1944 ... o... r...... o. 145 5 . Schoo1 Applications and Rej ections 1942-1946 .. '.. r.... o...... r.. r..... 148 6. Expansion of the Public School System ...o.... J-49 7, Town Schools Weekly Distribution of Lgssons ...... r... i...... r o...... L69 8. The Enrollment of Public and private Boys Schools .....,...,...... o.,...... L72 9. Enrollment in Village public Schools, 1944-1946 ...... r..... r... o r '...... 187 10. Town schools for Girrs weekr