Even if the move by the incoming Minister of Education, Yoav Kish, to cancel the MHR (social and spiritual heritage) reform later turns out to be correct - there is no doubt that it exacts a heavy price.
Those who pay the price of the instability in the education system are the students and the teachers.
This, even before we said a word about the waste of enormous resources to implement the action plan of the previous minister, Yifat Shasha Biton.
True, opinions in the education system regarding the reform were divided in any case, and there were fights between politicians and senior educationists among themselves - but this instability, as of now, serves no one.
Shasha biton and kish.
Each minister changes what his predecessor did in the position, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
As part of Shasha Biton's reform, the external matriculation exams in the subjects of history, Bible, citizenship and literature were canceled, and in their place, 10th grade students were supposed to submit in about two years (when they reach 12th) a multidisciplinary work (in the four subjects).
Its cost is about 300 million shekels, and so far the Ministry of Education has invested several million: a dedicated website has been established, some teachers have already undergone kashrut training, and in each school various positions have been appointed, such as a "machar leader", who were supposed to coordinate the issue. And what's more - both the teaching method and the assessment work have changed: instead of tests, the students had to prepare sketches, presentations and the like.
And yet, when you get into the depth of the numbers, it becomes clear that despite all the efforts, the teachers were not in a hurry to express their support for the baccalaureate reform.
From data obtained by Israel Hayom, it appears that only a third of the teachers in the upper division who were supposed to teach the humanities subjects underwent training or were enrolled in it.
The teachers did not rush to express support for the reform (illustration), photo: Dodi Vakanin
About 10,000 teachers were supposed to participate in the training, but only 840 Bible teachers did reform training, only about 1,000 teachers signed up for citizenship training, no more than 1,080 teachers signed up for history training, and 700 teachers signed up for literature training - that's all.
Although the reform was only supposed to reach its peak in about two years, the Ministry of Education did not know how to provide accurate data on the number of teachers who were trained and who are currently teaching in the classrooms.
In any case, there are those in the education system who believe that this is proof that the majority of teachers did not believe that the reform would come to fruition.
So what will happen now?
In the meantime, it was decided that the matriculation format will be maintained as it has been since the corona virus - external matriculation tests in mathematics, English, language and an advanced subject, and also an external test in at least one humanitarian subject.
The other humanitarian subjects will be tested by the school teachers.
In the meantime, the graduation format will be preserved (illustration), photo: Yehoshua Yosef
Controversial reform
As mentioned, not everyone agreed with Shasha Biton's reform.
In recent months, groups of teachers waged a struggle against the reform, as did the chairmen of the professional committees in the humanities (academics who advise the supervisor of the profession), who claimed that its continued existence in the current model is a great danger to the future of education in the State of Israel and the civic and national identity of its graduates.
According to them, it leads Israeli students to ignorance regarding their identity, their culture and their place in society, and widens the gaps between the strong schools and the weak ones.
"The Mkhr reform was abruptly and forcibly imposed on the schools, without the participation of the experts and those with the most experience, who are the administrators and teachers," says the representative of the administrators' chamber in the teachers' organization, Iris Doron.
On the other hand, the supporters of the reform argued that the old memorization method should be abandoned, and the students should be trained with different skills and with deeper knowledge.
"We would like the humanities subjects, such as literature, citizenship and history, to help shape the adult person's personality and his encounter with the world," claims the Dean of the School of Education at the College of Administration, Prof. Yaara Bar-On, who supported the new reform that turned tests into papers.
"That these subjects will give the student discretion, and develop him as an independent person who understands differences between cultures. This has nothing to do with tests. In a matriculation test there is only one correct answer, and the human mind does not work that way. Tests have limited validity in everything that concerns the worlds of the mind and emotions - they They are supposed to turn us into cluster people."
Prof. Yaara Bar-On.
"We would like the humanities subjects to give the student discretion,"
Not everyone cooperates
Prof. Bar-On agrees that the frequent changes in the education system discourage her employees: "Cancelling and announcing a new reform every year is a terrible and terrible thing. There are schools that simply do not cooperate and do not prepare themselves for the new reforms, because they know that in the end another minister will come and cancel all Whatever happened. The system is completely messed up, and the teachers are simply fed up that every day another minister comes with other decisions. They ask themselves what's the point. It's terrible in my eyes, because the system will never be effective."
Since 2000, at least ten ministers of education have changed in Israel: Shai Firon, Rafi Peretz and Yoav Galant served only a few months, and older ministers filled terms - such as Gideon Sa'ar, Limor Livnet, Yuli Tamir and Naftali Bennett.
Each of them launched a reform whose role is to streamline and improve the system, including the curriculum, and some of them canceled or did not implement the plans of their predecessors.
The Ministry of Education building in Jerusalem.
Since 200, at least ten ministers have changed, photo: Lior Mizrahi
Establish a council to decide
In many countries in the world - such as Finland, France, the USA, Belgium and Denmark, some of which are considered leaders in the field of education - national education councils operate. This is a body whose role is to advise the education system in formulating long-term policy, and to approve any substantial change in policy - if it is about content, in organization or budgeting.
This means maintaining stability and preventing waste of resources.
These bodies also enable another important thing - to clarify various issues that are on the agenda, and to increase the agreement between different communities and groups - as was the case around Bible studies, for example (a profession that was not really harmed by the reform, by the way). All of this should happen independently of the exchanges of Ministers of Education and CEOs of the Ministry of Education.
But in Israel there is no National Council of Education.
Almost 20 years ago, it was recommended to establish such a body, and a government bill was even submitted for this purpose, which was approved - but not promoted.
The State Comptroller's report, which was recently published, also claimed that the non-existence of a national council for education makes it very difficult to formulate a policy that would adapt the education system to the labor market.
"Our original proposal was that a national council for education work alongside the ministers of education who are taking office. This is a body that will include all the partners, to think about long-term plans and recommend to the minister how to proceed," explains the chairman of the Association of Directors of Education Departments in Local Authorities, Dr. Shai Fruchtman .
"The proposal was that ministers would have to consult with the council, and we even came up with the drafting of a law on the subject - but it stopped. We believe that such a body is needed. In the end, when there is such a high turnover of ministers, we must have stability. A national education council could enable the It".
Dr. Shai Fruchtman. "The National Council for Education will work alongside the Ministers of Education", photo: Binyamin Lapid
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