When you need to save a life, you focus on the critical systems.
You don't save the leg or the hand - you save the heart.
The Ministry of Education is on the verge of an upheaval, following the coalition agreements that tore up the enrichment programs, the Department for Torah Culture, and the Community Centers Society. This division is often framed as something on the border of the lawlessness of the incoming government, which in the cynicism of dividing files is crumbling the ministry in charge of the future of our children. But The truth is that maybe, finally, there will be an opportunity to fight for the heart.
Education in Israel is not good enough.
True, thank God - there are almost no illiterates, and we manage to provide enough high-tech workers and doctors to keep our heads above water, but the question is not only who will pay taxes here (which is an important question), but whether our children receive an education that allows them to reach their full potential and equal opportunities, and if the Israeli market will be able to compete in a decade or two with the global market.
The PISA tests conducted in 2018 showed that the students of the Jewish state education in Israel are placed at the bottom of the table of the developed world in the fields of science, mathematics and reading. A third of those who take the test failed. Far behind Malaysia, Jordan and Indonesia. Ultra-Orthodox were not included in these tests, and since the boys do not study math and science - one can only guess that their participation probably would not have improved the average. The proportion of outstanding students in Israel is lower than in most countries of the developed world (the expenditure for weak students is actually high), The overcrowding in the classrooms is higher - and this at a time when the national expenditure on education is on a consistent upward trend.
Maybe we console ourselves that education does not happen at home.
A parent's influence is usually infinitely greater than a teacher's, and that's a good thing.
But what sad consolation is this, when we have to convince ourselves that, at the very least, the damage to our education system is not so terrible?
That's not how you build a wall.
That's not how you build a nation.
The Jewish people, who have dawned on their flag literacy, depth, love of books and also - yes, yes - excellence, are capable of more.
Rather, the tearing down of all the excess programs above the Ministry of Education allows us to focus on this very essential system: no special programs, no community centers, no informal education; the "proper" education system, the six or seven or eight hours that our children are in kindergartens and day schools Day after day, year after year, and in which they are supposed to become educated, expand their horizons, deepen and become people capable of taking the torch from their parents.
The Ministry of Education received a golden opportunity as a gift, and who knows when it will return and which future coalition agreements will set it back.
This is an opportunity to focus primarily on: revitalizing the heart, reforming education, directing attention and resources and efforts to raising the level of students' knowledge and skills.
One can assume that this is perhaps an opportunity that also scares those who like to hang on to multitasking to justify the lack of treatment of the depth problems.
As part of the attempt to prepare for the challenges of the next decade, in 2020 the Ministry of Education published a long and rich document called the "Skills Document for Graduates", which tries to conceptualize and map two things: the first - "What is required to be developed among students at the present time, in order for them to be able to reach their personal and professional potential ";
And the second - "what is required of the educational system, so that it can lead all students to optimal achievements and equal opportunities."
The distinguished list includes digital, mathematical, scientific and linguistic skills, creative thinking, critical thinking, social awareness and more.
All these challenges, without exception, are still - even after the distribution of the spoils in the government - within the scope of the Ministry of Education.
Let's hope that the captains of the system, after expressing their regret over the reduction of the ministry's powers, will hurry to turn the lemons into lemonade.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
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