Ethiopian students lag far behind other Jews in Israel

In addition to lagging behind scholastically, children of Ethiopian origin also say that they have had to endure racist remarks almost three times more frequently than such remarks were reported by the general population of children surveyed. Significant gaps exist in achievement between students of Ethiopian origin and those of all students in the Jewish sector in standardized tests, a recent Education Ministry report has revealed. The largest gap is in eighth-grade math, where students in the Jewish sector overall scored an average of 50 points out of 100 and Ethiopian-Israeli students scored 26. In other subjects, including English, Hebrew and the sciences, the gap was between 18 and 25 points. The recently completed report is based on the achievements of students who were born in Ethiopia or whose parents were born in Ethiopia, on the standardized tests administered nationally between 2007 and 2010 by the Education Ministry to children from the fifth to eighth grades. The report also states that gaps between children of Ethiopian origin and others have been noted as early as the second grade in terms of proficiency in Hebrew. In a recent English test, eighth graders in the Jewish school system in general scored an average of 76 points in English, as opposed to 59 among children of Ethiopian origin. In Hebrew, the scores were 72 for all students opposed to 59 for Ethiopian-Israelis. Most of children of Ethiopian origin come from poor families, and the report attempted to check the extent to which socioeconomic background explained the relatively lower achievements of the Ethiopian-Israeli children. In comparing the results of the latter children with poor children of other backgrounds, the gaps narrow slightly, but were still significant. In scrutinizing the school environment, the report noted that 38% of Ethiopian-Israeli children reported being teased about their racial origin, as opposed to 14% of all children.