The Ministry of Education employs two modes of appointing teaching staff in official educational institutions: one for Jewish schools, in which the school principals are the dominant decisive figures in the process of hiring teaching staff, and have full discretion; and the second for Arab schools, in which school principals have no status or discretion in the appointment process of teaching staff.
On October 21, 2020, ACRI appealed to the Ministry of Education and demanded the annulment of this discriminatory policy in the Arab education system and called for the adoption of a policy similar to that of the Jewish education system, which grants administrative autonomy to school principals in selecting teaching staff. In the appeal, Attorney Gadeer Nicola, Director of ACRI’s Arab Minority Rights Unit, argued that the differences in appointments between both official education systems are illogical and unjustified, and generate grave and unlawful discrimination against Arab students, based on irrelevant ulterior motives. The appeal further argued that the Ministry of Education’s discriminatory policy severely violates Arab citizens’ constitutional right to dignity, as it conveys patronage and authority over this population at large, and toward school principals in particular, portraying them as incapable of managing schools like their Jewish colleagues, or to hire lawfully and impartially.
On April 25, 2021, ACRI received a response from the Ministry of Education, which argued that the hiring procedure in the Arab education system addresses the unique characteristics of the Arab education system – a surplus of teachers, the concentration of teachers in geographical areas, and complaints regarding appointments for irrelevant considerations – which require a different approach to that of the Jewish education system.