- The Israeli Education System is in Need of a Complete Overhaul
Authority and responsibility should be transferred to parties familiar with the students’ needs – parents, teachers, school principals and local authorities. The Ministry of Education should focus on setting goals, measuring outcomes, and ensuring that every student has fair opportunities, instead of managing the minutiae of every school. We must restore initiative and freedom of action to the system, and encourage a variety of schools to compete. Successful institutions will thrive and expand, while failing ones will either be forced to improve or be replaced by better ones. - Expand Schools’ Authority, Reduce Ministerial Management
We recommend transferring administrative responsibility from the Ministry of Education to local authorities and school principals. Schools should be granted broad autonomy in managing their budget, hiring staff and choosing teaching methods. Education networks should be permitted to operate elementary schools through agreements with local authorities. - Per-Student Budget, with Extra Support for the Disadvantaged
We recommend changing the budgeting mechanism: Instead of allocating teaching hours to schools by number of classes, institutions should be funded by fixed shekel amount per student. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds should receive more funding, and additional support granted to lower-income local authorities. - Flexible Hiring and Rewarding Excellence
The employment of teachers should be transferred from the Ministry of Education to local authorities and education networks, with individual teachers afforded the choice between collective agreements and personal contracts. The option of offering salary and other benefits to attract teachers of excellence and reward them should be expanded. In tandem, the process for firing unsuitable teachers without revoking their teaching license should be simplified. - School Principals: Professional Hiring and Strengthened Authorities
We recommend that school principals be selected via professional search committees rather than public tenders. Remove the threshold requirements that prevent suitable candidates from applying, and set a separate salary and promotion track for principals. School principals should be appointed for set terms, open to extension upon mutual agreement. - Reliable Assessment and Full Transparency for Parents
We recommend making the National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation in Education (RAMA) an independent body, distinct from the Ministry of Education, and to anchor its assessment and evaluation rules in law. Every student should be tested annually in core curriculum subjects, with the results delivered to their parents. The achievements of elementary and middle schools’ graduating grades should be made public, with students’ background and year-to-year improvement taken into account. Testing should be digitalized to allow for rapid feedback. - Parental School Choice
Every family should be allowed to choose between schools, subject to availability and equal and transparent admission processes. We recommend making the limited choice method the default option in all local authorities, and removing local authorities’ ability to prevent students from transferring to schools located in other authorities. - Shortened School Week and Adjusted Vacation Schedule
We recommend moving to a five-day school week, and adjusting school vacations as much as possible to working parents’ vacation days. The summer vacation should be shortened, among others by redistributing vacation days throughout the year, such as extending the Hanukkah vacation. - Streamline the Establishment of Independent Schools
Remove the barriers impeding the establishment of private and independent schools. Privately funded schools that meet the requirements set by the state should be eligible for land or building allocations, according to the area’s demand. - Haredi Education: Core Curriculum Expansion and Incentives for Integration
We recommend legally anchoring state-Haredi education as a recognized track, abolishing the special status of party education networks and creating incentives for improving students’ achievements in core curriculum studies. Renew the “Belz framework”, which expands core studies under professional guidance in non-state Haredi schools; encourage matriculation (Bagrut) excellence among Haredi girls; substantially expand the Haredi high-school yeshivas and their funding, and expand the training programs for Haredi teachers of STEM subjects.
