Israeli Educational System Conference

In October, I attended the Israeli Educational System Conference keynote. Jack Pastor presented this keynote. He is the dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at Oranim Academic College in Israel. He gave us the history of Israel including when educational acts were put in place. He then explained the problems with the educational system in Israel.

In 1948, the state of Israel was established. In just one year, the law of compulsory education was recognized. Four years later, the National Education Act was passed. There were many problems with the education in Israel. The most important of these, I think, was “The Bagrut”. This is a set of sixteen matriculation exams. These exams cause teachers to teach to the test. It also deters the teachers from originality. On top of these problems, only 48% of students pass the exam. Of the 48%, 15% will not be accepted to higher education. Although there are all of these problems with the exam, nobody wants to cancel it. Because of these exams throughout the education of students, nobody wants to become a teacher. Most teachers are teaching as their second career (after they retire from their first career). At the end of the keynote, Jack Pastor explained that there is a new minister of education who has an agenda. He wants to rework “The Bagrut” system.

I was very surprised when hearing about the educational system in Israel. I thought that New England was bad with all of the NECAP testing, but after hearing about Israel, we have it pretty good. The amount of testing there is way too much. They need to cut it back. It is hurting the students’ learning, the teachers’ teaching, as well as the students’ post high school lives. I am glad that the new minister is planning to improve the testing system. I hope that he is able to implement his ideas for the sake of the future leaders of Israel.

From going to this keynote, I was able to put into perspective that we are over-testing our students. We cannot continue to torture our students with all of the testing. I am certain that we need to drop some of the testing of our students.