The working paper relates to the 2010 OECD Economic Survey of Israel. The report shows how Israel’s education system is complicated by multiple streams providing education for different communities: the Arab, Hebrew, and Ultra-Orthodox population at the primary and secondary levels. Educational attainment of the working-age population is high compared with the OECD average (42% of 25-34 year-olds have tertiary type qualifications compared to an OECD average of 34%). However PISA results show that high-school students have relatively weak core skills and differences in secondary educational attainment across different segments of society are large. The report points out that reform efforts to tackle these issues are underway, including increased teachers’ pay in combination with more contact hours and increasing the length of compulsory education.

Key features of mainstream education

Israel’s education system is characterized by different streams at the primary and secondary levels and by military conscription. Primary and secondary education comprises four main streams: three for the Hebrew-speaking community and one for the Arabic-speakers. The Hebrew-speaking streams comprise State, State-religious and Ultra-orthodox schools. All streams are supervised and fully funded by the state, except the Ultra-orthodox stream, which is independent and receives partial state funding.

Military conscription (three years for men and two for women) intervenes in the transition from school to work or to tertiary education. Arab-Israelis are exempt and the Ultra-orthodox stream is effectively exempt. Its impact on individuals’ education and careers is clearly complex and one of the consequences is the development of a market for post-conscription education.

Primary and lower-secondary schooling is directly administrated by central government, while, with the exception of a small sector for vocational training, most upper-secondary schooling is under the authority of local government. Teachers are required to have teaching degrees and are strongly unionised, and school principals have sole responsibility in pedagogic matters but limited powers in hiring and firing staff. Catchment-area allocation is used for primary and lower-secondary schools and there are mandatory core curricula for each stream with common elements. Allocation for upper-secondary school is based purely on parental choice.

Expansion and challenges of Israeli education system

In recent years the education system in Israel has undergone massive expansion due to population growth, lengthening compulsory education and increasing demand for tertiary education. In international comparison, Israel devotes a relatively high share of GDP to education (around 8%); however, if this measure is divided by the share of the students in the total population, then Israel is slightly below the OECD average.

Educational attainment in tertiary education remains comparable high with the best-performing OECD countries. However, the OECD study points out that there are significant gaps between Arab-Israelis, Ultra-Orthodox and the rest of the population. Attainment in education among Arab-Israelis is lower (only about 20% of the Arab population aged 15 and over has attained tertiary education, compared with 45 % in the Hebrew population), and the ultra-Orthodox education is independent and presents specific concerns and challenges.

Moreover, international surveys reveal a general problem of weak core skills among secondary-school students, with negative implications for employers and tertiary institutions. Persistently poor educational outcomes among Arab-Israelis are being driven in particular by the following:

• The low socio-economic status of many families and communities is feeding through to student performance by several channels. Low parental achievement can reduce the educational
  aspirations of children, and limited labour-market prospects probably dissuade students from significant effort at school.
  
• The remote location of some communities (particularly the Bedouin) means students can be put off attending because they live a substantial distance from their school.
  
• Arab-speaking students face a heavy workload in language skills. Spoken and written Arabic differ markedly, making it tough to acquire reading and writing skills. Also, a significant amount of time is absorbed learning Hebrew, a high level of proficiency in which is essential for those aspiring to tertiary education in Israel.
  

Recommendations

The New Horizon reform is currently being implemented and the working paper encourages its full accomplishment. Some of the key features introduced by the reform are:

• Teachers’ working time is being raised from 30 to 36 hours per week
  
• Teachers’ pay are being raised substantially but also flattened
  
• Principals have been given more power over which teachers are hired
  

The main aim is to elaborate a new pay reform to tackle the crisis among teachers and attract quality entrants to the professions. In particular the reform should enhance teacher skills through increasing training and linking it to promotion. As regards other recent reforms, extension of compulsory education and the caps on class size should be implemented as planned.

A range of targeted programmes are already in place to address various concerns regarding the multiple streams within the education systems. A substantial share of the resources targets the Arab, Druze and Bedouin populations. It supports extra hours of study, rent assistance for teachers and resources for teaching equipment, such as computer labs. Investment in building new classrooms is a particular focus of current policy (as an effort to reduce class sizes in Arab-Israeli education), and specific initiatives are underway to strengthen Arabic language skills.

As regards the Ultra-orthodox education, legislation in the past permitted the creation of unsupervised schools to accommodate the Ultra-orthodox community. The report underlines that the linkage between the provision of funds and curriculum coverage or other pedagogic criteria is weak and it recommends that government funding should be made more conditional on schools teaching core skills.

For more information please see:
- the whole report
Israel Education Policy: how to move ahead in reform [OECD 2010] (pdf)
- 2010 OECD Economic Survey of Israel
www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/Israel