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In point of fact, the "uniform education" system harmed some new

immigrants. An example involved the immigrants from Yemen. In Yemen,

children were educated in a way that wasn't known in the new State of Israel.

In Yemen, children were taught to read from age three, by their teachers and

fathers. The Israeli authorities decided to give the Yemenite students an IQ

test. They showed them pictures of children and asked them to point out the

"different" children. Some pictures depicted children missing arms or ears but

the Yemenite children didn't pay attention to those details. They pointed out

the children who didn't have a yarmulke or sidelocks. These were the big

differences to the Yemenite children but the Israeli testers considered them to

have learning disabilities and low intellect.

These immigrants wanted religious and traditional education for their children

but in Israel they were forced to send their children to mixed schools where

only a small amount of time was dedicated to Torah studies. They asked to

continue with traditional education but the state refused. There were even

violent incidents in which children in the camps were forced to cut off their

sidelocks. In one case, a Yemenite teacher who had come to teach Torah to a

group of students was shot in the leg.

After many difficulties, a committee was formed in 1950 that decided to

cancel the "uniform education" approach.

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