British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 673

CHAPTER XVI.

105. In addition to the bodies enumerated in the Code as shown above, the following bodies must also he mentioned.

106. Local Education Authorities. Most of the elementary schools and kindergartens in the Va'ad Leumi system are maintained by local Education Authorities with the help of grants from the Va'ad Leumi. The amount of the grant depends on the number of teaching posts and on the financial capacity of the Authority. Administrative control is thus partly decentralized. the Va'ad Leumi retaining control however in all pedagogic matters. This applies particularly to the Municipality of Tel Aviv, which has an education budget actually larger than that directly controlled by the Va'ad Leumi, and which maintains a Department of Education of its own with a Director and an administrative staff.

107. The Labour Federation. The Labour settlements are all affiliated to the General Federation of Jewish Labour; and although each settlement receives its own grant calculated on the same basis as that of other Local Authorities, in practice the grants are pooled and administered, along with contributions of the settlements and of the Labour Federation, by the Labour Schools Council. These schools therefore enjoy in practice a very large measure of autonomy, and are subject to little control by the Va'ad Leumi Department.

108. The Hebrew Teachers' Assocation. This is a professional association comparable in form with the National Union of Teachers in England but conducted with far less sense of responsibility. This association, besides being represented on the Vaad Hahinnukh and on the School Councils, exercises influence on the control of the schools. both in administration and in pedagogic matters.

109. In actual working the Code has not proved wholly satisfactory.

Of the three Trends, the Mizrahi and the Labour Trends are in practice almost autonomous, central control by the Vaad Leumi being largely confined to ratification of the budget of the maintained schools.

This autonomy tends to unnecessary duplication of effort and even to rivalry, as, for example, when three competing schools are set up in one settlement; and it leads at times to inefficiency, since, in the schools of these two Trends, pedagogic interests may be outweighed by party considerations.

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