'Road Map' For Jewish Schools

by Justin Cohen - Thursday 17th July 2008


A warning that “more than one secondary school is likely to be enrolling non-Jewish children in the near future” and a proposal to ease the financial burden on parents by creating a fund to support Jewish studies are part of a “road map” on the future of Jewish schools published today.

Having received submissions from more than 40 educational institutions over the last year, the Jewish Leadership Council’s Commission on Jewish Schools has delivered its final report, analysing issues such as future supply and demand of school places and funding and offering a comprehensive
series of recommendations.

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Tackling one of the most pressing issues which has occupied the Jewish educational establishment in recent years, the report confirms that an increase in places in mainstream secondaries beyond 2008 – and an expected
total 50 percent increase between 2005-10 - will present a significant challenge.

“There is some doubt whether enrolment can increase sufficiently to match this growth,” Commission Chair Leslie Wagner writes in this week’s Jewish News, “and if it does not, more than more than one secondary school is likely to be enrolling non-Jewish children in the near future.” To maximise the number of parents opting to send their parents to Jewish schools, the report calls for schools to undertake a collective public relations campaign to “emphasise the qualities of Jewish schooling”.

In the wake of a change in the law which meant that the school would be required to take students of other faiths, in 2006, King Solomon High School announced it was changing its admission policy to accept students who are not Jewish under Orthodox law. Since then, the Schools Adjudicator ruled that JFS should amend its under-subscription criteria to remove references to the need for a Jewish parent or grandparent where the school is under-subscribed.

The report expresses particular concern about schools in Redbridge, suggesting that a cost-effective restructure would see Ilford Jewish Primary School relocate to the King Solomon High site. The two institutions are urged to “consider the value of a merger”.

However, there was also cause for optimism, with the five existing mainstream secondary schools in the capital all confident that they will meet their target intakes for 2008-9 – a prediction that if born out “would be a remarkable achievment and indicate a step-change in the demand for Jewish secondary education”.

The report also insists that all Jewish studies staff should be professionally qualified, but perhaps the most revolutionary suggestion in the report is for an expert group to examine the possibility of an endowment scheme to help fund the subject in schools.

Wagner said: “Jewish studies suffer from the fact that they are financed through voluntary parental contributions and some parents, either because they are unable or unwilling, do not contribute fully.”

He added that a fund would “create at least a minimal amount of funding which is secure, we will then have to ask parents for less money and more parents will hopefully pay the full amount.” But he suggested that such a fund, which it is hoped would also be supported by communal bodies across the community, would be unlikely to be up and running for at least three years. “A lot of work has got to be done by a lot of people,” he said.

The Jewish Leadership Council has now agreed to establish a group, to be chaired by Leo Noe, to oversee the implementation of the report’s recommendations.

JLC Chairman Henry Grunwald said: “The Commission has succeeded in delivering a road map that not only addresses the issue of supply and demand but sets out a framework for major improvements to a schooling system that they rightly identify as one of the success stories of our community. Of course this is just the start of the process and I am delighted that the JLC has already taken steps to ensure that the recommendations are implemented.”

Read the latest copy of The Jewish News Online by clicking here.