Israel's Education Ministry, schools need to strengthen trust - opinion

As it turned out, thousands of Israeli students from the edge of Gaza to Netanya did not take the exams. Hundreds were squashed into underground shelters without fresh air or reasonable exam-taking conditions. Most preposterous of all, in the North, students had to stop the exam in order to scurry for shelter as rockets were fired from Lebanon. The math Bagrut is probably considered the most difficult of all. Were these sensible conditions in which to place our students in order to evaluate their knowledge of the subject?

Over the last two years, it feels as though trust has been eradicated from many sections of Israeli society. And yet, as millions of Israeli’s scampered into their sealed rooms on a daily basis or left their apartments in search of a safer place to stay, it was trust that was needed in the education system in order not to cause more schisms in our society, this time between school-aged students and the adults responsible for their education. A few days before the exam, the Education Ministry provided an additional date on which the exam could be taken, however, this does not go far enough to provide the students with some much-needed stability.

As opposed to countries like the United Kingdom and Australia, Israel has long chosen quantity over quality for the Bagrut examinations. In the aforementioned countries, year 11 and 12 students need to pick fewer subjects in order to be eligible for university, and they have more freedom of choice over the subjects that they elect. Studying fewer subjects enables students to experience learning on a deeper level, it enables more detailed research, provides more time for profound thinking, and develops 21st-century skills that are required in the workplace. In addition, allowing students to choose their subjects according to interest raises motivation levels to succeed in those subjects.

WITH THE latest round of atrocities having caused angst across all levels of society, having multiple subjects for which to study adds an additional level of anxiety to an already traumatized school-age population having just exited a year of online learning. Furthermore, due to the impending end of the school year and the unlikely scenario of teacher unions allowing its members to continue teaching into what would be a second consecutive summer, the Education Ministry has been under pressure to squeeze the exams into an impossibly small window of time.

As thousands of students did not sit for the math exam, it will now be shoe-horned between Hebrew and civics, two of the harder exams among the Bagrut subjects. In a regular year, it is recognized as being nigh on impossible to study properly for these exams in such close proximity to each other, hence there is usually a big gap between the dates of these exams. With the current plan, students will be forced to complete the unmanageable: mathematics, Hebrew and civics within eight working days of each other. And this, after the last week or so of having experienced some of what will have been the most traumatic experiences of their lives.

It has long been claimed that the Education Ministry does not trust its school principals or the teachers who provide education at the source. This is one of the reasons that principals have long yearned for more autonomy. However, due to the year of COVID pandemic, the ministry saw fit to “loosen the leash” and grant more of a free hand to school principals. This was indeed a commendable step.

However, with the recent unrest in Gaza and in Israeli towns having occurred at an inconvenient time in the school calendar, the ministry has found itself in troubled waters, with no room left to maneuver. A possible solution would be to draw on that admirable step taken last year.

After the prolonged first lockdown of 2020, the ministry did indeed allow schools to choose two from four exams within the humanities cluster that could be written by school staff. This showed a level of trust between the ministry and principals not previously experienced. From a school perspective, this allowed principals to evaluate the situation of their students and test them accordingly, all within the confines of the Bagrut requirements. It is this model that needs to be adopted on a broader level.

Moving into the future, schools need to be given more autonomy across most if not all subjects. Only those on the ground, those that know their students and their individual ability and that know the effects of the current school year on the learning process can possibly be in a position to legitimately evaluate student capability. These last 15 months have caused untold damage to our children’s education and most likely to their emotional well-being. By broadening the relationship of trust between schools and the Ministry, we could indeed be seeing the first steps being taken towards much needed educational reform.