The Israeli population is one of the most educated in the world
The information and data about the educational system I am about to present during this interview are based on a report from 2019 called Education at a Glance.
The funds Israel is investing in the educational system are quite considerable, namely 5,7% from GDP are allocated to education. It is a high number compared to other countries, for example in Finland it is 5.1%, Portugal 4.5%, France 4.5% and Slovenia 4.3%. The average in OECD is 4,3% and Korea, United States, Germany, Spain, Slovakia, Italy and Czech Republic allocate less.
Now, looking at the educated adult population, Israel is in an excellent place, meaning that the Israeli population is one of the most educated in the world. 50,9% of the adult population, between 25 and 64 years old, has completed one form of higher education, meanwhile the OECD average is 37%. Korea, US, Finland, Denmark, Spain rank lower.
This increase points out the progress Israel is making in education
The 50.9% is from 2018, whereas in 2010 it was 45.6%. What we can see is that there was also a very nice increase, more than 5% during 8 years. This increase points out the progress Israel is making in education. Not all the countries have this rapid change in the key indicators in education.
On the other hand, the percentage of people that did not finish middle school from the same age group (25 to 64 years old) is 12.6%, which is lower as compared to 20.9% ,the average OECD percentage.
Another point I would like to mention is high-school graduation percentage within the 25 to 35 years old age group has increased from 44% in 2010 to 48% in 2017. Here again we see progress during a seven-year period and it shows the development in education.
In order to have an accurate image of the educational system we should look at the age groups of the population. Israel’s population is very young and the number of students in the total population is 34.3%. The OECD average is 24%, in Italy this figure is only 18%, in Germany 20%. It clearly means that Israel is a young country with a very numerous young population. A characteristic of the Israeli population is the large number of children per family.
The salaries of teachers in Israel are higher than the OECD average
Half of Israeli elementary, middle and high school teachers are younger than 40 and in general are more updated and they know how to use technology for teaching.
Young Israeli professionals tend to shift to teaching, because they want to feel fulfilled by contributing to society. Many of them return to their previous jobs after a few years as entry level teaching jobs are poorly paid. It takes more than 10 years for a teacher to earn a decent salary. Many of them would enjoy teaching but economically they are not able to survive.
Education in technology, physics, mathematics or computers is very important also for young children. It is highly relevant to have qualified young teachers for these subjects. So, there are many programs organised by the Ministry of Education to train pedagogical skills to young professionals to become teachers. But the low salary and the long working hours are challenges for them.
As the young population is numerous, we have to adapt the educational infrastructure. The number of students in a classroom is 25% larger in elementary school, than the OECD average, meaning 26.5 students per class compared to the OECD average which is 21.2.
In middle-school the situation persists, as there are around 28 children per class whereas in OECD there are 22.9.
This is a problem. We are building more classes and schools, but as the young population keeps growing, providing the proper infrastructure is a challenge even if we are investing a big percentage of the GDP in education.
We see in some European countries that classes have 15 to 20 students, but most Israeli classrooms accommodate 30 children or more.
The number of study hours in Israel is another issue that is being discussed right now at a Ministerial level. The weekly number of class hours is one of the highest in OECD. For example, the number of hours children spend in school from elementary to middle school is 8703 hours in Israel, compared to the 7500 hours in OECD. US, Australia and Denmark have the same problem, but other countries like Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Finland, Austria have fewer hours.
Debate in favour of more free time for student
There is an ongoing debate within the Ministry of Education to reform the school schedule in favour of more free time for students. This current situation affects also the academic achievements. Staying all day long in class, students don’t have enough time for homework or to follow their passions and that’s a real problem.
Regarding the structure of the educational system in Israel, until the age of 6 we have kindergarten.
The public kindergarten is free and mandatory. All kids between the age of 3 up to 6 are expected to attend kindergarten, of course they can opt for a private kindergarten, but most Israelis register their children to the public system because the quality is very good.
Between 6 and 12, we have elementary school and then they go to middle school which is followed by high school. So in Israel middle school is not connected to high school, there are basically three different systems.
The public kindergarten is a good educational system in general. As I have already said, it is free, but there are still some expenses to be covered by the parent, like books or trips. These additional costs have had some criticism because some parents do not agree with paying for extra things which in some cases might reach around 3000 Ron/year.
We have in place several different systems
Regarding school, we have in place several different systems. The regular public schools are secular and can be attended by students from all parts of the society, regardless of religion. In Israel when we talk about religion, out of the Jewish population, 25% are religious. This means that the majority of the Jewish population is secular. Those who are religious can study in these regular schools, but for them there is also another system available, the public religious schools. The third type of school is the ultra-orthodox system. 1% of Israeli are ultra-orthodox and they study in their own system which is also very different even from public religious schools. These are the three systems and they are all being regulated by the Ministry of Education, everything they do and every book they study needs tis state funded.
When we talk about regular public schools there are schools that are located in areas were Arab communities live. In these schools they study in Arabic, but they also have Hebrew language classes.
Regular public schools have this one class that it’s about the Bible. It’s not a religious class, but more like a history class. In the schools in Arabic communities they would study the Quran if they are Muslim or the New Testament if they’re Christian.
Each of the public universities excels in some study area
Higher education in Israel is mainly public and the universities have high enrolment standards. In order to be accepted you need good grades and on top of that there are admission exams. The fees are about 15000 ron/year, so it’s quite cheap. If you fail to enrol into University and still want to study, one can choose a private college, but the fees would be about 50000 ron/year. These private colleges are not research institutes and the graduates receive an educational degree, not a diploma.
Each of the public universities excels in some study area. Tel Aviv University is renowned for its MBA, their graduates are going to work in Hi-Tech field or they start their own companies. Also the Law department in Tel Aviv University is famous.
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba is known for engineering and IT. So if you’re looking for a career in technology most likely you will want to go to Beersheba.
The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa is specialised in IT, it might be called the Israeli MIT and it’s very hard to get there. The ones who get accepted would benefit from the best technological training in the world of computers, engineering or chemistry.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where I was a student, is best known for social studies, political science, international relations or communications but also for mathematics and computer science.
When it comes to medicine, we have several schools, most notably in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. The demand is so high that one needs very high grades, close to perfection in order to attend a medical school in Israel.
50% of the Israeli medical doctors study abroad because of the high competition in Israel, many of them enrol in Romania or other countries from Europe and US.
Some of these Israeli high education institutions are known worldwide and rank very high, like the Hebrew University, Weizmann Institute for Science, which offers only postgraduate degrees, The Tel Aviv University or Technion.
Higher education is open for foreigners and we have many international students
In general if you live in Israel and you know Hebrew you can apply like anyone else to a higher education institution.
Higher education is open for foreigners and we have many international students. The big universities have a foreign students department so usually there are programs for foreign students mostly for Master studies. They study some Hebrew but the courses are in English, Spanish or French.
Regarding public universities and private colleges, this year something very interesting happened, for the first time a private college becomes a private university. This means that it will be recognised as a university. It is new to us because until now research was only possible in public universities. They are the closest correspondent to Harvard or Yale from US. This private higher education institution it is a good and popular one. They have good Communications and Law departments. But most of their students were the ones who didn’t get accepted into a public university. Since it is not financially supported by public funds, the students have to pay 60000 ron/year which is expensive. Now when they become a university and offer scholarships, some of the good students that would normally choose the public university might choose this one instead.
Higher education is digitalised. This means that students usually have an app and all the experiences as a student are through this app. Schedules, notifications, applying for courses or see test results, everything is done this way. There is also a digital system in place between universities. If a student decides to apply for a Master program at a different university than the one where he got the undergraduate degree, all the information will be transferred digitally.
Israeli universities were the among the first higher education institutions to use the internet as a tool for a more efficient activity. They are computer oriented and they have been so from the beginning, for example the Weizmann Institute had one of the first computers in the history of higher education.
Today the communication between the school, parents and teachers is through an app
The archives and the libraries have been digitalised, students can access courses or any other kind of bibliography for their projects just by logging in to a computer, instead of going to the library.
When we talk about elementary school, middle school and high school, the situation is slightly different. The digital infrastructure in schools is good. Today the communication between the school, parents and teachers is through an app. They use specific applications, approved by the Ministry of Education.
For the first three COVID-19 waves the government shutdown the educational system several times, in a similar way to Romania. The decisions were made by the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health and the Prime Minister. They started by trying to keep everyone in class, but in the end they shifted to online. This decision affected more than a school year. Today they have found this balance of teaching during the COVID-19 waves.
There was also a pilot project to test all the children for COVID-19. Once a week the parents needed to send the test results through an application. The tests were done at home, which was problematic because it was not like going to a clinic. If one child from a class had a positive test, automatically the entire class would start the online school, get into quarantine and needed to test themselves before returning to school.
There was a second pilot which proposed that the children from a class where a COVID-19 infection was reported, would be in quarantine for only one day, during which they would get tested. If they had a negative result they could return to school. To my knowledge it didn’t work because parents either did not test their children or tested and forgot to report.
All the systems were based on the principle that a kid would not come to school if he wouldn’t feel well, but then they found out that this was to complex.
The new guidelines of the new Israeli Government state that school should not be closed, as the past experiences had been so bad.
We are now in the middle of the vaccination campaign for children. It started a couple of weeks ago. The numbers are not very high yet, the percentage is around 8% – 10%. COVID-19 vaccination is not mandatory for children, but it helps the families that want their children in school.
During elementary school there are some standard vaccines that children need to take, not the COVID-19 one. They used to be administered in schools by nurses and now the Government offered the same option for the COVID-19 vaccine. What I want to point out is that schools already had the experience, the knowledge and the infrastructure from past vaccination campaigns and it can be an advantage now.
Israel school managers are being given more independence
Israel school managers are being given more independence. This has an impact on mandatory and optional subjects, because as a director one can decide what’s relevant for the children attending that specific school.
When I was in high school, in the 10th grade I could choose the third language between French and Arabic. This is an interesting detail because you would say that Arabic is much more relevant than French to Israelis as we live in the Middle East of course and many Israelis are Arabs. In addition to the language you can also choose two other optional subjects that you want to focus on. The plan is to give more options and more flexibility to students.
I think the education in Israel would move towards a lower number of hours in class. Students should have more time to focus on their study priorities. Of course there would still be in place several mandatory subjects, like the history of your country. There are many things that are not being taught right now, for example how to manage your taxes or how to read you salary notification. Children are studying mathematics, algebra and physics, but not the practical things that would allow them to become functional citizens in a society.
Working in small groups and project based would have to be implemented as an educational practice in schools
Another important direction in education is to adjust the number of children in classes. Also working in small groups and project based would have to be implemented as an educational practice in schools, small teams that would focus on learning specific subjects.
Right now there is a general understanding that smart students perform well in mathematics and this concept is damaging to the students that have excellent skills in social sciences. We have to get rid of this old way of a general evaluation system based on mathematics. We need other criteria also. To be a good journalist, you need to be inquisitive and have specific skills like listening, observing, writing. For these students mathematics is not that relevant. We need to support our students to follow their passions and to train them in areas that are relevant to their abilities.
Israeli educational system used to have the 13th and 14th grades. This system was in place in areas where students would struggle with their regular education. At the age of 18 Israelis enrol into army service which is part of the educational system. Of course most of them choose intelligence training. Instead of going to the army, kids were offered to join 13th and 14th grade and train in a professional field. At the end of this two year training period they would be able to get employed and work as mechanics, chefs, hairdressers and so on. This system has been criticised because the future of children was determined by the area where they lived and it limited the available educational options. There are also some schools that are part of the army service. Students are training in a specific field and then they start working within the army, for example, they train as mechanics and then they get a job for the Navy, in ship repair and maintenance department. Vocational education is needed, but it is problematic at the same time, it should not interfere with the chances of children to succeed.