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The history of the Israeli educational system reflects a consistent need to address diversity of population, conflicting points of view, and varying needs, while adhering to essential principles of excellence in curriculum and student development. The State of Israel was founded on May 15, 1948, under the auspices of the United Nations, ending a long period of British Mandate. During the past half…
The formation of the educational system of Israel has come about through a series of laws setting up the system and making changes within it to address diversity issues and problems. It is a highly centralized system, overseen by the Ministry of Education, and Culture and Sport, including separate schools for the Arab and Druze segments of the population. The school system has two major goals: pro…
There are four levels of education in Israel, beginning with a preprimary or nursery school level and continuing through primary and secondary levels to higher education of several different types. Free and compulsory education begins with two years of nursery school starting at age three, and a year of kindergarten at age five. The addition of two years of nursery school was instituted with a cha…
The preprimary educational program developed from the traditional Jewish Heder (translated from Hebrew as room), a form of early childhood education common among Jews in the Middle Ages. In the Heder, boys from age 3 to 13 would study Hebrew and learn religion from a single teacher. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Israeli schools had begun to develop kindergarten and nursery school prog…
Prior to Israel's independence and in the first years of its existence as a country, secondary education was funded by tuition and was not mandatory. Following the educational reforms of 1968, all students were required to attend school through grade 10 and there were no tuition charges. These changes came about as a result of a perceived failure of the schools to provide equal opportunity,…
Higher education in Israel consists of universities, other degree-granting institutions, teacher-training institutions, regional colleges, and academic institutions from abroad that offer programs but confer degrees in their country of origin. The universities have an independent legal status as mentioned previously, under the administration of the Council for Higher Education. There are seven maj…
The diversity of Israel's educational system is further reflected in its overall structure and financing, which allows for centralized leadership and structure balanced by some aspects of local control. Thus, the Ministry of Education and Culture establishes the curriculum, oversees most aspects of the system of state and state-religious schools, and pays teacher salaries. Local authorities…
Nonformal education includes both activities outside of school programs and unrelated to them, and those sponsored by the schools in addition to regular instruction, for instance, extracurricular activities. Israel's informal education outside of the schools consists mainly of the youth movements sponsored by the various political parties. These youth groups are funded and supported by the …
Teachers in the state schools are generally trained in teachers' colleges.
Despite the clear goals for education established by Israel's founders, the system has not been very successful in achieving either the high level of excellence in curricular achievement or the full integration of a diverse population into a cohesive society. There are still strong divisions between Ashkenazi and Sephardic segments of the population, between religious and nonreligious Jews,…
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