Survey reveals Israelis' education priorities amid ongoing war

A survey that aimed to identify the key issues and themes the education system should focus on during the new school year in light of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war was conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute's Education Policy Program.

Encompassing 500 Jewish and 100 Arab respondents aged 18 and above, the survey explored central themes that the education system should address in light of the ongoing war, including classroom discussions led by teachers on the issue of returning hostages, and potential adjustments to the curriculum during wartime.

Additionally, it compared the promotion of common ground in Israeli society through the education system between two different measurement years.

Jewish and Arab voters

The first question presented several themes related to the war, with respondents asked to choose the most important one for the educational system to convey in the upcoming school year.

Of the choices listed, 45% of Jewish respondents voted for the importance of maintaining national unity and cohesion during the war. In comparison, the Arab demographic placed the most importance (27%) on the willingness to make concessions to end the war or for peace.

Interestingly, not a single Arab respondent placed the highest importance on defeating the enemy, even if it meant prolonging the war, while 10.5% of Jewish voters placed it first.

A close second place among Arab Israelis was the importance of protecting human and civil rights even during wartime, which received 22.5% of the Arab vote. However, no single option held a significant amount of votes across the Arab demographic the way that nearly half of Jewish voters agreed on national unity being a priority

Jewish demographics

When further broken down between the Jewish demographics polled, the survey revealed that of the 45% who placed maintaining national unity as the most important topic, 60% defined themselves as haredim, the highest of all religious demographics.

All Jewish respondents considered the theme emphasizing unity and cohesion as the most important one. Even though the percentage of secular respondents was relatively lower than that of other Jewish groups, at 38%, it remained the most prominent theme.

Political affiliation

When the same question was reanalyzed based on Jewish respondents’ political affiliation, the Left and Right presented a mirror image. The most crucial issue according to right wing voters – the importance of defeating the enemy – received less than half the amount of support across the Left, while the importance of protecting human rights received no right wing support, compared to the Left’s 29.5%.

Similarly to Arab respondents, no left-wing voters placed importance on defeating the enemy at the cost of prolonging the war.

Those who identified as Center tended to align more closely with the Right.

Hostage return in the classroom

When asked if teachers should discuss the return of hostages and examine the moral significance of the demand to bring them back at any cost, the majority of Jews and Arabs agreed at a similar rate, 53% and 51.5%, respectively.

When the data was again broken down across Jewish demographics, it was found that the percentage of those who agreed among secular, traditional non-religious, and religious respondents was close to the average of the overall sample; ultra-Orthodox respondents stood out for their low agreement rates.

Breaking the sample down by political orientation showed again that Right and Left-affiliated voters had significantly opposing views, while voters aligned with the Center had similar results to the Right.

Adjusting the curriculum

On the subject of a potential adjustment to the curriculum due to the ongoing war, even at the cost of reducing study material and altering content, Jewish and Arab respondents had almost identical views, with a majority agreeing.

Respondents across the Jewish religious spectrum shared similar views on the matter. There is a broad understanding among the public that the education system must adapt to the current reality, even if it comes at the expense of existing study materials and curricula.

The 2024-2025 school year work plan stated that “adjustments and updates are required given the complex reality,” though the plan did not address a significant change in the themes and issues the system has dealt with in light of the war. The survey data has shown support for more far-reaching adjustments across all groups.

Common ground through education (2022 vs 2024)

Given the current Israeli situation, a question from a 2022 survey was repeated, asking respondents to what extent they agreed with the following statement: Because the education system is divided into streams, it cannot help promote a shared narrative for all groups in Israeli society.

The question was initially posed following the last election results of 2022 and before Justice Minister Yariv Levin announced expected changes in the judicial system, before the protests this issue caused.

While only 40.5% of all respondents agreed with this statement in 2022, the new survey showed an agreement rate of 51%.

Additionally, a prominent gap was found among Arab respondents, with 65% agreeing in 2024, up from 47% in the previous survey.

This gap may reflect a loss of trust within the Arab community in the education system’s ability to bring about change in this regard.

These disparities were also reflected across Jewish respondents, across both religious and political orientations.

The changes between the two surveys indicated that even among groups whose initial agreement with the statement was relatively low in 2022, there is a broader sense that the ability to achieve common ground for all Israelis through the education system is limited.

Given that the Education Ministry has emphasized the notion of ‘social solidarity’ as a goal for the current school year, this raises the question of how this goal can best be implemented while not ignoring existing tensions and conflicts and seeing as there is no single narrative encompassing all identities within Israeli society.