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university to study mathematics , natural sciences or technology . The basic findings of the commission were that the students who had gone through the school system were ill-prepared for commencing studies in mathematics , natural sciences and technology . This was explained partly by budget cuts in recent years and the resulting reduction in teaching hours in these subjects , and partly by the insufficient number of well qualified teachers . Although Israel has compulsory education up to grade 10 ( age sixteen ) , there remain two groups of under-achievers , one , the socalled unattached youths and the other , the weak learners who have profited very little from their years at school . The unattached youths are those in the age groups fourteen to seventeen who neither attend school , nor have permanent employ , nor are accepted by the Army . About 8 per cent of these four age groups come within the category of unattached youth . Each age group consists of about 55 , 000 . Four age groups make up about 220 , 000 and 8 per cent comes to about 17 , 600 unattached youths . Of these about two-thirds are boys and one-third are girls . Some pilot projects are being operated to "recover" these youngsters from a career of crime . One of the projects , known as MANOF , is described below . If we take the same four age groups , we find that about 7 per cent are weak learners . They have attended school at least for a number of years and have emerged with little trace of knowledge . Seven per cent of 220 , 000 comes to 15 , 400 . It is . from this group that candidates are chosen by the Army for remedial training . The Army has to provide compensatory courses for educationally weak soldiers . Several special schools have been set up in basic subjects , especially arithmetic and reading comprehension . These soldiers often are at an educational level of ten-year-olds . A catalogue enumerating what appear to be failures of the school system should be cause for concern . However , I do not think that they justify the gloomy conclusions that have been drawn from these surveys . In 1948 , when Israel was re-created , the total Jewish population was about 600 , 000 . Now , in 1984 , the children in the Hebrew school system alone number about 700 , 000 . With compulsory ed-
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מקס רואו
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