A mere 4 percent of immigrants' children go to university in France, compared to 25 percent of the children of French-born, according to a report in the most recent issue of The Economist (November 22).

Since about half of immigrants in France are Muslim, one could deduce that the proportion of Muslim and Arab immigrants' children attending French universities is less than 4 percent. It follows that the ratio of Muslim to non- immigrant French university students must be higher than the 1 to 6 indicated in the Economist.

This is an extraordinary fact. Unlike Israel, European countries do not publish education data on the basis of ethnicity or religion. Israel does publish such data under these categories because of the registration of ethnicity, which is common here, and also because the education systems for Jews and Arabs are separated.

This information is unusual from another point of view - France is known to be a state of all its citizens, a model for equality of rights irrespective of religion and race, and is often portrayed as opposite to the model of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. So, how is there such a gap in a country that belongs to all its citizens - and where admission to universities is free? In Israel, despite bitter national conflict, the ratio of Jewish and Arab admissions to universities is 3 to 1 - half the gap in the French data. Could it be that this happens in France precisely because of the republican principle that does not recognize a separate identity for minorities?

In Britain, which recognizes multi-culturalism and has an education system both advanced and integrated, the results are not much better. They also do not publish data delineated by ethnic origin, but in the population census data based on ethnicity do appear, and they are grave when one looks at the GCSE exams that 16-year-olds take. At the top are pupils of Chinese and Indian origin and native whites. At the bottom are the two Muslim communities, from Pakistan and Bangladesh. In Birmingham, a city of many minorities, the exams in 1991 were passed by 39 percent of white boys, 49 percent of Indians, 31 percent of Pakistanis, and only 17 percent of blacks. (The rates for girls were higher but differences based on ethnicity are similar).

The exams used for admission to university in Britain (the A Levels) are similar to the Israeli matriculation exams - and the figures there are even worse.

On the basis of data from 1991, 26-27 percent of the blacks and the Chinese passed these exams, while only 5 to 7 percent of pupils of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin succeeded.

In Israel the gap between Arabs and Jews is much narrower, a ratio of 4 to 5 among those taking the exams (no data is available in terms of the populations as a whole). And while the difference is that in Israel the Arabs are a native minority and in Europe the data is for immigrants, the difference is that in Israel the gap narrows at a fairly impressive rate while in Britain there are still no signs that ground is being covered.

How can these enormous gaps between Indians from India and Indians from Pakistan be explained, or between native French and immigrants from North Africa, and between Christian Arabs and Muslim Arabs in Israel? It appears the most significant determinant is the size of the family and the results of many researches point to this: the more siblings a pupil has, the lower his or her achievements are in school. This explanation seems to be valid in France, Britain and Israel.

This at a time when Israeli intellectuals argue that because of the gaps between Jews and Arabs, Israel is not a genuine democracy.

Israeli democracy is indeed flawed and we should not accept any gaps in education. However, if Israel does not qualify as a democracy because of these differences, then France and Britain are not democracies either.

On the basis of data already presented in the past it is possible to conclude that contrary to anti-Israeli propaganda, the gaps between Arabs and non-Arabs in Israel are small compared to the ethnic gaps in European countries.