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The Arab population was rapidly growing. The population increased from 0.6 million (1911) to 1.3 million (1948). The rapid growth was not because of any change in the birth rate, but rather the steps the British Mandatory Government took to create a public health system and bring modern medicine to Palestine.
The Arab population was primarily Muslim (89 percent) and Christian (11 percent). An estimated 85 percent of the Arab population were peasant farmers (Fallaheen) living in rural villages. Most were landless or owned very small plots and sunbsisted by mannual labor. This began to change when the Mandarory Government initiated a range of infrastructure projects to modernize the country (1930s). [Al-Hag and Rosenfeld, p. 10.] Many Fallaheen began moving from the villages to the towns seeking work. This began a process of urbanization. During the Mandatory period, the Muslim Arab population reached one-third. Christian Arabs on he other hand primarily lived in urban areas. The Jewish population was also primarily urban, but as part of the Zionist movement began estabishing agricultural settlement (kibutzes).
But the Mandatory Government's educational policy was focused on the villagers (Qarawi) where most Muslim Arabs lived. [Tibawi, p. 16.] This was the population that attended the public schools. Jews and Christian Arabs attended their own schools which were essentially private schools. There was no effort by the British to bring them into the public system or interest in either group to enter the public system with the majority Arab Muslims.
While Arab authors are uniformily critical of the British role in Palestine, in fact the British took their responsibilities very seriously and put an emphasis on eucation on education that the Ottomons never did and for the first time made Arabic the language of education for Arab children.
The British helped finance the opening of mny new schools, including village schools. The Ottoman schools were almost all located in cities and towns. An Arab author critical of the British has to admit, "What is particularly striking about the Arab schooling system under the British Mandate is the extent of its quantitative increase. Also, the British Mandate authorities seemed to allow the original owners of Arab schools to maintain their control over their schools." [Jabareen] Under the Brtish, education was free, but not compulsory. The Ottoman public school system at the end of the War included some 100 schools. Under the British the number of schools increased to 550 (1947). Under the Ottomans only about 5 percent of the children attended school. the British raised this to more than 30 percent. The primary constraint was not the lack od schools, but the reluctance of Muslim Arab parents to send their girls to school. Of course if the British had tried to make public school attendance compulsory their would have been a unrorar of opposition among Aran parents and cgarges of oppresive colonial rule. A fair assessment of the British achivment reports, "Overall, Arab education in Palestine developed significantly under the Mandatory administration. Schools were established in many villages, making educational opportunities more accessible. Secondary school education increased and became strongly associated with the achievement of a white collar job, usually as a clerk or a civil servant who not only enjoyed economic mobility and security, but also a higher status due to his [note the male form] association with the rulers." [Mar’i, p. 15.]
The educational policy of the British Mandatory Government was disappointing to some Arabs in Palestine. We are not sire of the level of disatisfction, especilly as the Mandate authorities so significantly expanded the system. Arab authors generally repot that there was substantial disatisfaction. [Jabareen]
This may well be the case. A factor here was the rising nationalist feeling among Palestinian Arabs.
The teachers and students alike became more national concious. It is less clear how many were concerned about the British supervision of the public system or to what extent they were aware of it. We re not sure just what British poliies were found objectable. We suspect that the British favored a more secular appoach while the Muslim Arabs wanted a greater Islamic component, but this needs to be confirmed. An Arab author reports that the British were primarily interested in supressin any curricula material that might promote nationalistic sentiment. [Jabareen] Another author writes, "In many cases they came to express their disappointme
nt and frustration at the lack of autonomy for Palestinian Arabs over their education, which was directed and supervised by British officials." [Mar’i, p. 16.] One important element was the fact that unlike the Jews and Christian communities, the Muslims Arabs were no willing to finance an autonomous school system. Their public school system depended on Mandatory support. Arab educators were convinced, however, that it was unfair fot the British to give the Jews autonomy over their schools and not the Arabs. One author phrases it was unfair that "... an education system which served less than 10 percent of the population and to deprive the Arab majority of the same right." [Jabareen] Also it is argued that the escalating conflict with the Jews 'alarmed'
the Arabs, who began to increasingly question the overall role of the British in Palestine. Education was of course one aspect of that. Politically concious Arabs believed as the British expanded the education systems, ironically, that the British control over this new system posed a real threat to the developing national idenity. Before the mandate, it was the mosque and Islamic clerics that had the greatest influence in Palestine. The British by expanding the school system was creating a powerful new instituton affecting Palestinian thinking.
And Palistinians like the Grand Mufti did not want the British controling this powerful new institution. Here the British were not all that tactful about how they handled the stuation. Many Arabs were outraged when the Assistant of the Director General of the Mandatory Department of Education bluntly opposed the demand for autonomy. "He explained that a nation able to direct its education autonomously also needs political autonomy, and he saw the Arabs of Palestine as people who needed mandate." [Mar’i, p. 18.) An Arab author suggests that the British believed that by controlling the Arab education system that they could preserve political and social stability in the Mandate. [Jabareen] We do not understand, however, just how they administered the school system to support the Mandate. The teachers we believe were almost entirely Arabs. Not do we know to what extent they exercized control over the content of text books. We are also unaware to the extent Islam was allowed in the system. These are all unknowns we are intersted in pursuing.
The British may have wanted to control the school system that they were significantly expanding. They proved incapable, however, of comtrolling the students or even the many news teachers whose salaries they were paying.
Foreign Minister Balfour, the author of the Balfour Declaration, visited Palestine and treated by a protest by Arab teachers and students who went on strike. This would prove to be the first of several such strikes during the Mandate express criticism of British policies. The school system which Britain was promoting proved ti be one of the most vocal critics of British rule. An Arab historians reports that the teachers were confused and perplexed. "On the one hand, they had to maintain their loyalty to a government whose policy they disliked at heart. On the other hand, they had to be patriots and models for the young in the raising of their national consciousness." [Al-Hag, p. 49.] Another Arab historian repeats that sentiment, maintaining that Arab teachers were caught between irreconcilable realities. He says, that they realized that 'the balance between these loyalties was not always even, in times of crisis it sharply swung in favor of the national side." [Tibawi, p. 196.] While we see considerable criticism of British control, it is notable that such criticism did not occur during the Ottoman period. The Ottomans would not have permitted it. There seems to be little or no recognition anong Arab authors of the new openess permitted by the British. One author does suggest that 'conflicting loyalties' meaning the politicization of the schools did affect the quality of the education the students received. [Jabareen]
The primary Arab complaint about the Mandatory education policy appears to be that the British goal was to 'denationalize' the Arab education system, meaning the public schools. We are not sure how this was even possible given the fact that the teachers were Arabs. It wasm however a widely preceived British policy and according to one author a source of 'fatigue and frustration' to the Palestinians, 'especially its educated members'. [Jabareen] Educated Arabs appear to have concluded that Mandate policy was to promoted 'denationalization' to 'prepare
ground conducive to the establishment of the State of Israel.' [Miller] Ignoring the substantial British effort to expand the public school system, Arabs authors charge that, "The Mandatory government viewed education as tool for controlling the population, but never as a means of social, economic, political and cultural
change and development." [Jabareen] Another Arab author claims that the Mandatory educational policy aimed, on the
contrary, at keeping 'Arabs ignorant' using the telltalel term 'Siasat Al-Jahil'. [Said, p. 36.] Now it is difficult to see how an educatioal policy which increased school attendance 500 percent over the nearly 400 year Ottoman era in only 30 years as well as attemting to increase the educatio of girls can be charged with attempting to keep Arabs ignorant. But even more important is the use of the term 'Siasat Al-Jahil' is fascinating. As best we can understand the term means something more than ignorance, something more like spiritual ignorance. Perhaps Arabic speakers can tell us more. We suspect that the complaint was more the secular content of the curiculum than the availbility of education. The Arab author that we have leaned on heavily to assess Arab opinion asks, "How can any educational policy devoid of any 'national content' be considered quality education or a tool for positive social change? This policy aimed at producing politically blind individuals, who were totally
alienated from their own heritage, culture, and natural political concerns." [Jabareen] What Arab authors do not seem to understand is that producing educated individuals is not symnonanous with producing ardent Arab nationlists. Nassar received an education that mafe his an adent Arab nationalists, but was he an educated person and did he imprve the Egyptian nation and the lives of the Egyptian people.
British authorities appointed the first Director to head the new Department of Education (1920). Both the director and his assistant were British. The next level of administration was six inspectors, two were assigned toheadquaters and the others for the four education districts. The British by 1925 had an administrative structure in place. [Tibawi, p. 28.] An Arab critic writes, "The directorate had many deficiencies, some of which were crippling and posed serious threats to any real educational progress in Palestine." [Jabareen]
The Director was an important figure. One sources describes him as combining, "... the powers and functions of Parliament, the minister of Education, the local education authorities and the national union of teachers." [Tibawi, p. 30.] he controlled legislation, appointments and dismissals, the curricula, and 'said the final word in all professional matters'. [Tibawi, p. 30.] Arab authors describe the Department as
the personal property of the Director. One author says, "His word was final; no one could criticize him or even make suggestions to him." Now it may be true that his word was final, but we soubt very much that no one even within the Department could make suggestions. An Arab critic complains that no one could administer the emense responsibilities, claiming that a 'super-human' person was needed. There is no doubt that the Director was very important, but this would seem to be the case of similar positions throught the Arab world where there wre few democratic states in which the public could exercise any real oversight. Specified failures includedby Arab authors, "discontinuity in top level leadership, especially the position of Director; lack of proper Arab representation, and the appointment of unqualified individuals to sensitive positions". [Jabareen] One author specifies, "The inadequacy of the educational system held especially true for women and Fellaheen, more than 95 percent of whom were Muslim Arabs." [Jabareen] Unsaid was the huge increase under the British in school attendance by both groups and the reason that many in both groups were not attending society--which in fact was Arab cultural norms which the British has nothing to do with. But aspertains to discontunities and Arab representation, there seems to be more justificatin in Arab criticism.
One serious issue throughout the Muslim world is the education of girls. This was an issue in Mandatory Palestine. It continues to be an issue tiday. No one could better illustrate this than Malala Yousafzai. An Arab critic of the Mandatory Government writes, "Another destructive element in the educational policy adopted by the Mandatory government was the negligence and total lack of concern for the education of women, particularly rural women. [Jabareen, p. 13.] He goes on to lecture us bout the importance educating girls. But no one in the West takes issue with this and even in the Muslim world it is widely although not universally recognized. He charges that the government’s major concern was to maintain social and political stability, and not to 'defy' the feelings of religious or conservative sectors of the population." [Jabareen, pp. 13-14.] We think this author isessentially correct here. But what this Arab author does not mention is that the religious and conservative and conservative sectors as led by the Grand Mufti dominated Palistinian thought. Here a degree of intimination ws involved on the part of the Mufti, but is undeniable that the great bulk ofthe Palestinian Muslim Arav population had a conservative orientation and were very reluctant to send their girls to school. In othr sections of hs article the author argues that Palestinian representation should have been more proprtional and rpresenative. But here he argues that the British should have ignored popular aditudes and impsed their values on the community. If they had done so, it would not only have been destabikising, but the British would have been attacked for insestivity and dictatorial rule. The Arab author complains British policy created an 'imbalance between the education of urban and rural women'. [Jabareen, pp. 14.] This is accurate. Urban Palestinian Arab women became more educated and literate and therefore more socially outspoken and politically influential rural women made little progress. But thee were choices the Palestinians themselves were making. The British for the first time brought schools to the villages. It was the Palestinians who chose not to send their girls. A problem here was that there were so few women teachers. An Arab author writes, "Women teachers, trained or untrained, were almost impossible to find among the Muslim community. Few among the Christian communities could be found with sufficient general knowledge and experience.” (Tibawi, p. 25.] He is absolutely correct here, but who was responsible for this, the British or Arab society. It takes years to educate a female teacher. You cn not take someone who had no access to eduction as a child. Perhaps the British should have done more to promote female educaion, but you have to ask, just how hard Muslic clerics in the mosques or Arab secular spokesmen were pushing the issue. As a result urban women while still restructed made real advances. And the Christian Arab community lived mostly in the city and were able to take advantag of the increasing access to education. Rural women, however, languished in the same virtually medieval status that had been the situation for centuries. The situation in the Jewish community was radically different, especially the most recent arrivals. They came from an society in which women were well educated and that the modern currents of women rights had begun to percolate.
The Mandate had a Bediuin population of about 110,000 people. Many of the Bedouin were in the process of ssettling down. A substantial part of southern Palestine was Negev desert and here the Bedouin were still largely nomadic, a people that were still largely untouched by the changes occuring around them. The Ottomans made no special effort to educate the Bedouin and the nomadic Bedouin were for the most part still illiterate at the beginning of the Mandate. We are not sure to what extent the Palistinian Bedouin, especially the Negev Bedouin participated in the Arab Revolt during World War I. The Mandate brought a degree of order to the Negev, some of which adversly affected the Bedouin. The British Mandate Department of Educatioin made the first real effort to provide schools for the Negev Bedouins as part of the Mandatory Education Law. The Bedouin in geberal, and especially the Negev Bedouin were not overly interested and in the case of girls, parents were extremely reluctant or actively opposed to sending their girls to school. the Mandate authorities did not press the issue with the still nomadic groups given their limited resources and the huge task they were involved with extending schools to villages in settled areas. We believe that schools for nomadic groups would have at first been expensive because they involved boarding facilities which futher affected the effort because of the limited budgets available. [Cwikel and Barak] The British adopted more coersive policies, esecially during World War II--the Bedouin Control Ordinance (1942). As a result we begin to see a basically settled population by the end of the Mandate, except for the Negev where the Bedouin were till semi-nomadic. We see Bedouin schools in the 1940s. We know virtually nothing about them except that they seem to be mostly for boys. The process of literacy was just beginning, but it did begin durung the Mandate period. It was not unil the establishment of the state if Israel that a major effort was made in Bedouin education.
We notice that Arab authors are especially critical of the Mandatory Deparment of Education inspectors. One author writes, "Inspection and the appointment of inspectors was another hindrance to progress in the education system adopted by the Mandatory government. Most inspectors were unqualified, inexperienced, and unfit for their positions." [Jabareen, p. 14.] The inspectorate began functioning soon after the creation of the Department of Education (1920). The Director as already mtioned appointed six inspectors, one authorinsists that their authority to substantially the schools in their district was 'almost minimal'. [Jabareen, pp. 14-15.] He believes that the two most important inspectors, the ones at headquarters were unqualified. An Arab author describes them a 'former missionary' and a 'former intelligence officer]” [Tibawi, p. 30.] The point appears to be that these backgrounds suggest that they were not chosen on the basis of their educational qualifications. Perhps the most qualified of several short-term directors of education was an Arab and Cambridge graduate, George Antonius. He complains that on many occassions he asked for the inspectors to give their opinions on educational matters such as syllabi or curricula. All too often they would reply simply "I agree". Frustrated, he wrote, "Inspectors, I asked you to be good enough to give me your considered views, not your unqualified approval!". [Tibawi, p. 31.] One does wonder about their qualifications. One would think some university work and a knowledge of English and Arabic would be the minimal qualifications. Ine author finds that they did not meet the most basic criteria. He writes, "What strikes one as even more surprising is that the number of university degree holders in the inspectorate from ١٩20-48 remained the same; only one. Two inspectors could not write Arabic, but wrote some Turkish. One of them could not speak a word of English, while a fourth would write some indecipherable classical Arabic which did others no favor whatsoever. The fifth even questioned wheter the earth was a sphere." [Jabareen, p. 15.] They were responsible for the school buildings, staff, and educational materials. And they were ecpected to report to the Dpartment on conditions at schools in their district. The qualifications of the assistant directors and other offocials were even more disappointing as well as their wrk at village and other rural schools. One author charges that the number of inspectors to visit each school was not determined by the need to do the job properly , but rather by the fact that a certain number
of inspectors would be 'comfortably seated in a small car'. And Arab authors are dusdainful about the quality of the reports, rarely reorting nothing of substance. One author writes, 'Nothing specially wrong' was a 'contagious formula'. [Tibawi, p. 33.]
The Mandatory government attempted to control over the curriculum. Extreme centralized control was characteriic of the French edicational system which had been adopted by both the Ottomans and Egyptians. Arab authors, hwever, critize the British adopting centralized control of the curiculum as well as the curicula itself. Here as best we can tell the concern is primarily with history. As we do not have access to the history books, we can not cooment on the conent. We can report on the dusatisfaction. Arab nationalists viewed The Depart's efforts to control the ciriculla as 'restrictive and suffocating'. [Jabareen, p. 16.] There is no doubt that the Department was faced with a difficult situation. There were sensitive political and relgious issues. And een the vlues of a diverse, secular society was anatema to many natinalist and political figures. nd there was alo ghe problem that the majority of the teachers in the Arab-Muslim public schools were unqualified and untrained. [Tibawi, p. 77.] The Brtish approach to the senstive issues was just avoid them. One author tells us that "... contemporary history and the geography of the Arab countries were excluded from the official syllabus." [Tibawi, p. 196. and Al-Hag, p. 48.] Ome Arab author reports that effot as he sees it of the Mandatory government to 'quench the legitimate nationalistic feelings of the Arabs' proved counterproductive. [Jabareen, p. 16.] And erhaps even worse, the British attemp to supress Arab nationalist sentiment in the curicula created a vacuum which the nationaliss moved to fill. [Al-Hag, p. 48.] The commn assessment appeas to be that a '... mere glance at the curriculum of the Arab schools in Palestine would show its static nature and the attempt to preserve stability or even to reduce the status of the Arab society, or at least to fix it at a certain level of development.' [Yousuf, p. 182.]
The British focus on education education was focused on primary education. This is not especially surprising. At the time most British children did not go on beyond their primary school. This did not change until after World War II.
The British did not stop with primary school, but of course you can not open secondary schools until you have primary school graduates to begin secondary schools. And finally the British began steps toward university level studies. Again you can not open a university until you have substatial number of graduates from secondary schools. The first secondary schools were boarding schools because there were so few children who had completed primary education. The most prestigious secondary school was the Arab College in Jerusalem. The Arab College opened with the arrival of the British (1918). It was a normal school designed to train the teachers needed to expand the primary system.
For a time its principal was the influential Ahmad Samih Khalidi, father of Walid Khalidi and Tarif Khalidi. It would be closed wuth the end of the Mandate and the First Arab–Israeli War (1948). After only one decade into the Mandate you see the beginning of a tertiary system. The first university-level inctruction began during the mandate. And unlike historic universities in Muslim countries, these developing universities did not focus on religious studies. You see secular curriculums including the sciences. And if that was not revolutionary enough, you see the beginning of what would become a university for young women. We see the Palestine Technical University Kadoorie and the finncing came from a surprising source. It is an agricultural college located in Tulkarm, in the northern West Bank. The college was opned after only one decade of British rule (1930)> The British Government received a bequest from the Iraqi-born Jewish philanthropist Sir Ellis Kadoorie. The college was named in his honour and still bears his name. We note Rashidia College, Jerusalem in operation (1943), but have been unable to find information about the school. We note Birzeit School for Girls founded by Nabiha Nasir (1924). It began as a primary schoo, but by thend of the mandted had evolved into a coeducationl secondary school (1930), a very avat guarde idea in an Arab counrey at the time. It was renamed Birzeit Higher School (1932) and Birzeit College (9142). After the mandate would become a university.
Cwikel, C and N. Barak. Health and Welfare of Bedouin Women in the Negev (The Centre for Women’s Health Studies and Promotion, Ben Gurion University: 2001).
(Al-) Hag, Majid. Education, Empowerment, and Control: The Case of the Arabs in Israel (State University of New York Press: 1995).
(Al-) Hag and Rosenfeld.
Jabareen, Alu. "The Palestinian Education system in Mandatory Palestine".
Mar’i, Sami Khalil. Arab Education in Israel (Syracuse University Press: 1978).
Miller (1980).
Said (1984).
Tibawi, A.L. Arab Education in Mandatory Palestine: A Study of Three Decades of British Administration (Luzac & Co. Press Ltd.: 1956).
Yousuf. (1956).
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