Nachum Blass, Principal Researcher and Chair of the Taub Center Education Policy Program, takes a close look at some sensitive issues in the education system and points out changes it has undergone, among other things, in terms of budget and class size. He also sheds light on the education system’s achievements and failures over the past year. The former includes successes in the Druze education sector while the latter includes the situation in special education.
While the education budget has grown, it has not always been for the right reasons
The education budget for 2024 is 21% larger than the 2022 budget. This growth includes three main components: the reserve budget, which is meant to equalize the budget of the recognized unofficial education system (largely composed of Haredi [ultra-Orthodox] schools) to that of the public education system and which is almost two and half times larger in 2024 than in 2022; the special education budget, which increased by 29% due to the growth in the number of students, primarily those with disorders that are particularly expensive to treat; and the budget for primary and middle schools, which grew by 35%, largely as a result of the wage agreement with the Teachers Union.
The growth in the special education budget and the number of special education students
The main part of the increase in the education budget was for special education, which grew from NIS 10.9 billion in 2017 to NIS 16 billion in 2022, an increase of 46%. This compares to the budget for the regular education system which grew by 23% in the same period of time. In relative terms, the proportion of special education within the total education budget grew from 18.7% to 21.4%. Similarly, the number of students in special education grew faster than the number of students in the regular education system.
Despite the significant increase in the budget, many parents claim that there has not been any improvement in the services provided to their children. On the other hand, the rapid growth in the special education system is creating pressure on the Ministry of Education budget and there is concern that this will reduce the resources allocated to the regular education system.
Class size in middle schools – the education system’s Achilles heel
The chapter shows that there has been a slight but consistent decline in class size in primary education; however, the opposite situation exists in the middle schools, and it has worsened over the last decade. In 2023, one-third of students were still learning in classes of over 32 students, which is the same share as in 2013.
Blass believes that “the lack of improvement in class size in middle schools is highly problematic since the students are adolescents, a particularly vulnerable age group that is characterized by, among other things, attention deficits.”
The achievements in the Druze sector – the result of teacher quality and the budget, among other things
The Druze sector has shown the largest achievement gains in the education system, particularly in terms of the bagrut (matriculation) exams. The proportion of Druze students who take the bagrut exams and the proportion of those who qualify for a bagrut certificate are very high. In the 2020/21 school year, the rate of qualification reached 92.3%. This increase, which was achieved within only five years, put Druze students well ahead of those in the Hebrew State education system and the other Arabic-speaking sectors. In addition, the Druze sector leads in the proportion of students qualifying for a high level (5-unit) bagrut in mathematics.
The success of this sector can be attributed to, among other things, the large budgets it allocates to primary schools and high schools and the quality of its teachers, almost half of whom have a master’s degree.
Making the bagrut exam in civics mandatory is likely to strengthen democratic values
The main criticism of the reform in the bagrut exams, which primarily involves making it optional to take bagrut exams in liberal arts and social science subjects, was that it would reduce the value of learning these subjects in the eyes of students and — perhaps even worse — would lead to their being dropped from the curriculum.
The results of the research show that only a small minority of students choose to take the bagrut exams in these subjects at a high level, in contrast to the large number of students who choose do so in mathematics and English. Even in Bible studies, which is the only subject that saw an increase in the number of students taking the bagrut exam during the past decade, only about 8,000 students took the exam at the highest level in 2020, in contrast to about 16,000 who took five units in mathematics and almost 50,000 who took five units in English. In civics, the situation is even more concerning: the proportion of students taking the exam at the five-unit level in that year was only about 0.3%. According to Blass: “The connection is clear between the dismal situation in the liberal arts and social science subjects, and in particular civics, and the general lack of understand among many of the younger generation about democracy and the definition of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”
The Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel is an independent, non-partisan socioeconomic research institute. The Center provides decision makers and the public with research and findings on some of the most critical issues facing Israel in the areas of education, health, welfare, labor markets and economic policy in order to impact the decision-making process in Israel and to advance the well-being of all Israelis.
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