The Forum for Public Education (in Israel)


Preface (by O.G.)

According to the neo-liberal ideology, any aspect of human life is subject to the rationale of capital-gain and should be administered accordingly. In my opinion, at best, this claim reflects a reversing in the roles of goals and instruments: the main aspects of human life (like education and culture) are of intrinsic value that can not and should not be subjected to the rationale of capital-gain, whereas subjecting them to this rationale results in degenerated forms of human life. Specifically, education and research can not and should not be administered as production of goods and selling of merchandise.

One of the civil bodies trying to counter-act (in Israel) the application of the aforementioned neo-liberal approach to education is the Forum for Public Education, which places special emphasis on the state of higher education. The concrete trigger to the creation of the forum was the financial crisis of the higher education system in Israel, intentionally caused by the government with the aim of forcing this system to adapt to the rationale of capital-gain. As an immediate response to this crisis, the forum demands a drastic change in the governmental policies regarding the funding of the higher education system and the reversing of various harmful reactions that the system itself developed in response to the decreased governmental funding. The highlights are

Some (Hebrew) notices of the Forum for Public Education are posted below.

[Last update: June 2008]


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