British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 717

CHAPTER XVI.

Table 20.

School year schools

NUMBER OF pupils

Boys

Girls I * Total

1920•21 1923•24 1927-28 1932•33 1937-38 1942•43

July !9H

244 914 314 299 402 403


15,509 U,655 19,164

17,133 4.12G 21,259

21,202 5,489 26,691

38,2*15 11,155 49,400

*15,603 12,722 58,325

50,450 I 14,340 64,790

The approximate total of Arab pupils attending schools in the Government system in the present school year is 80,000.

188. The distribution of schools as between the towns and rural areas at present is : towns 78; villages 426. The distribution of pupils at the end of the school year 1944 was :

Towns I VILLAAGES


16,116 -- 11,375 I 27.491 I 34,334 I 2,965 * ..:'..:'..::i~

Outside the public system, in the same year, the private Christian schools, bad approximately 27 ,232 pupils and the Moslem (private schools had 14,073 pupils, of whom 2,798 were girls.

189. An interesting detail, which is itself indicative of the equal improvement in economic conditions in the rural areas during the war, is that Arab villagers voluntarily contributed £P.671,242 for village public works and social services during the five years 1941 to 1945; out of this total, a sum of £.426 ,592 was contributed specifically for the extension of village education. These contributions in cash were additional to assistance afforded by villagers for communal village projects in the form of free labour and donations in kind, the value of which in terms of cash must have been considerable but cannot be estimated. Some details of the cash contributions and of the sums expended there from are given in tables 28 and 29 at the end of this chapter.

190. It will be evident from the foregoing particulars that, whatever the deficiencies which have yet to be overtaken, the facilities for, and the scope of, Arab education have been greatly extended during the period of the mandatory administration. The proportion of illiterate persons becomes greater as the ages increase (as
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* January 1946--504 schools.

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