The number of Palestinian Israeli teachers working in Jewish state schools has increased by 40% over the last few years, and has now reached 588. This is the result of an Education Ministry program run jointly with the Merchavim Institute for the Advancement of Shared Citizenship in Israel. The program aims to integrate Palestinian Israeli teachers into Jewish schools, which helps promote shared living and tolerance.

The school subjects showing the largest increase in the number of Palestinian Israeli teachers (76%) are English, math, and science. The number of Palestinian Israeli teachers teaching Arabic language also showed a 40% increase between 2013 and 2016.

Eyal Ram , head of the Education Ministry’s Teaching Personnel Department, said the program aims to provide “an opportunity for a shared life and coexistence among the two sectors, and to offer a viable solution for the surplus of teachers among the Arab sector and for the shortage of English, math, and science teachers among the Jewish sector.”

Merchavim works to assist young people from different backgrounds to learn about each other, value their differences, develop a shared civic consciousness, and make their classrooms, schools, and communities more just.

Photo via Flickr — “The Teacher” by Andrew E. Larsen