Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 384

strained relations between the local Education Boards and the Central Educational Administration. The local Boards claim the right to receive 50 per cent, of their education budget from the Government, and they maintain that in the event of their withdrawing from the Central Administration in financial matters, they could become autonomous in this question and would receive their share from the Government. They fully realise the need of a. centralised education system, but they maintain that the Central Administration should confine its activities to supervision of theschools, to the drawing up of a curriculum, and, in conjunction with the local Boards, to the appointment of teachers and their dismissal.. This problem of centralisation or decentralisation is pregnant with many dangers for the localities which are economically backward. Decentralisation is bound to undermine the basis of a united national education. The Vaad Leumi, therefore, defends the principle of a united and centralised education system. For the purpose of clearing up this question, a special committee of eight members was appointed at the beginning of 1935, headed by Mr. Ussishkin, and composed of members of the Administrative Board of the Hebrew education system and representatives of the Teachers' Association. The committee met ten times and no agreement was reached; but on the other hand, all participants, including the representatives of the localities which demand extension in administrative authority, admitted the need of strengthening the centre from an educational point of view. The committee has not yet concluded its task and many questions of importance are still outstanding, including the question of joining the schools of the " Merkaz Hachinuch " with the Central Administration Board. 3. The Schools of the Labour Confederation {Histadruth). The schools of the Histadruth Haovdim are separated, in an administrative sense, from the schools of the other sections, the General and Mizrachi. For many years now demands have been made from various quarters to bring the Labour schools under the control of the Central Board. The Labour schools enjoy a large measure of autonomy, but the central administration, although recognising the special autonomous rights of the Labour schools, cannot agree to the appointment and dismissal of teachers in these schols being carried out without its consent or disapproval. The Education Centre of the Histadruth has opened, in recent years, without the assent of the Central Board, a number of schools in towns and colonies outside the Labour settlements, and many regard the opening of schools by this section as a danger to the unity of the Hebrew educational system. Last year, an important step forward was taken in the direction of unity. A preliminary agreement between the Executive of the Vaad Leumi and the Executive of the Histadruth was arrived at with regard to the inclusion of the Histadruth schools in the general 384