The matriculation certificate in Israel is the main goal of the post-primary school in particular and perhaps of the entire education system.
It is one of the hardest gates to define class and chances of success in life.
This transcript also significantly affects accessibility to a bachelor's degree in higher education institutions, which weight, each according to their own vision, the average of the matriculation certificate with the psychometric score, and depending on the number obtained determine whether the candidate will be admitted to a particular faculty.
In the years leading up to the 1977 revolution, when Mizrahi oppression was at its peak, the proportion of Mizrahis in universities was extremely low.
To illustrate: in 1980 only 20% of all 17-year-olds were eligible for a matriculation certificate, but under the Likud rule a revolution took place so that in 1990 the eligibility rate was 30%, in 2000 40%, and in 2013 53.4%.
According to data from the Ministry of Education, the rate of eligibility for matriculation among twelfth-grade students in the year 2020-2019, half of which was conducted in distance learning, was 73.4% - an increase of 3.7% compared to the previous year.
About 64% of all those eligible for matriculation, which is about 74,000 twelfth-grade graduates, meet the threshold requirements for admission to universities.
The person who does not agree with the dramatic changes that have taken place in the education system is the lawyer Prof. Manny Mautner from Tel Aviv University.
He recently addressed MK Dudi Amsalem defiantly: "The Likud movement has led the country.
You must honestly ask yourself: What have we done to reduce the educational gaps between Ashkenazis and Mizrahis?
I think the answer you have to give is: we did almost nothing. "
The respected jurist testifies to a thousand witnesses that his political-ideological conception instantly obscures the basic facts before him in a central area of government improvement of access to matriculation certificates.
Was the revolution of colleges and the increase in accessibility to Middle Eastern and Arab middle-class universities, created and established by the Likud movement and its partners, born of the foam of the waves - or the fact that there was a dramatic change in the issue of access to matriculation certificates?
The lofty perception that the Likud movement is the absolute evil, which has not caused anything in the field of education, is detached from the facts, and yet is often heard above every academic hill as an absolute truth that cannot be challenged.
I believe that the reforms in the matriculation certificate in recent decades have been a major factor in the democratization of education and especially in the state effort, which is intended to strengthen the accessibility of the weaker classes and those in the periphery to education in general and higher education institutions in particular.
There is a direct line between those reforms and the reform in the matriculation exams, which is currently being promoted by the Minister of Education, Dr. Yifat Shasha Bitton. , There will be no matriculation exams based on memorization, and in their place there will be diverse assessment processes and dialogues.
Indeed, there is a danger that the study units in the humanities will be pushed aside, and the educational staff will focus on matriculation units with external assessment.
There may also be an erosion in the quality of studies, which will be reflected in a decrease in the volume of study material and in the level of teaching in the humanities, because the emphasis of the schools will be on the external examination subjects - Hebrew, English, mathematics and extended subjects.
Finally, the teachers' union is also expected to oppose the reform for fear that the abolition of matriculation exams in the humanities will lead to a reduction in the additions due to teachers for each grade submitted to matriculation.
These are junctions that the Minister of Education should resolve in order to lead to the success of the reform - and with it to improve the accessibility of students in the geographical and social periphery to higher education.
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