Education is a powerful driver of development and one of the

strongest instruments for reducing poverty and improving health, gender

equality, peace and stability (The World Bank Group). Education in Israel is a
fascinating topic because they have such a variety of schools and schooling
systems. The status of education in Israel has changed over the centuries
and has become very diverse. In the process of education becoming more
beneficial to the children and community, it must follow three priorities. The
first priority is to put every child in school. The second priority is to improve
the quality of learning and the last priority is to foster global citizenship.
By putting every child into a school we must expand access to
education. Over the many years Israel has been founded, its education
systems have grown dramatically and it was very difficult to integrate such
large numbers of immigrant children. When the state of Israel was founded
(1948) a fully functioning education system already existed. It was mainly
based on Hebrew which was the language of instruction. However, once the
immigrants started coming over to Israel, they had over 70 different
countries sending their children to Israel; some coming with parents and
others all by themselves. The mass immigration of the 1950s, mainly from
postwar Europe and Arab countries, was succeeded in the 1960s by a large
influx of Jews from North Africa. In the 1970s, the first sizable immigration of
Jews from the Soviet Union arrived, followed intermittently by smaller
groups (Education in Israel 1). Leading onto the 1990s and today, over one
million Jews from the former soviet union have come into Israel, with more

still arriving each year. With this many children coming to Israel this led to an
urgent demand for more classrooms and teachers. With so many different
cultural backgrounds, tools and methods have had to be developed to help
the children adapt to the many cultural backgrounds in schools. Some
preparation included curricular aids and short terms classes to introduce
immigrants to subjects that were never taught to them in their countries of
origin. Education in Israel begins at a very young age in order to provide
children with an augmented "head start," particularly in terms of
socialization and language development. In Israel I feel like education is very
important and priority number one is and has been met.
Second priority is to make sure the quality of learning is excellent and
striving to only get better. Israels education quality right now is thriving. The
organization for Economic Cooperation and development conducted research
to determine the most educated countries in the world. Israel came in
second by the percentage of college degrees earned in Israel. Israel makes
it a point to actively participate in the education of its citizens. According to
the research from OECD, Israels high school graduation rate was astonishing
92%, which is well above the worldwide average of 84% (Rothberg). Part of
the success in Israels education system is greatly credited to the Ofek
Hadash (New Horizon) education reform implemented in 2008. This reform
specifically brought a higher quality education for students and improved
education curriculum and better structured of studies.

Priority number three is extremely important. Priority three has to do

with fostering global citizenship and tying it into education. A global citizen
is someone who identifies with being part of an emerging world community
and whose actions contribute to building this communitys values and
practices (Ron Israel). In Israel they are striving for a higher skill level
globally and communicating their ideas. Leadership tomorrow depends on
how we educate our students today. Israel is trying to start the STEM
program which is widely used in Australia, Canada and the United States.
Preparing students in the STEM program prepare them to be a better person
able to play a big role in the society (Cover et al.,2011). It has been
successful in many other countries, so hopefully it booms in Israel.

Works Cited
Priorities. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://www.globaleducationfirst.org/priorities.html
Resources for speakers, global issues, africa, ageing, agriculture, aids, atomic energy, children, climate
change, culture, decolonization, demining, development, disabilities, disarmament, environment, food,
governance, humanitarian, refugees, women. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2015, from
http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/briefingpapers/efa/
The Millennium Development Goals Eight Goals for 2015. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2015, from
http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/mdgoverview/
The World Bank. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://search.worldbank.org/all?qterm=israel
education&title=&filetype=

Israel is the 2nd most educated country in the world: Why and how did we get there? (n.d.). Retrieved
March 24, 2015, from http://rothberg.co.il/israel-is-the-2nd-most-educated-country-in-the-world-whyand-how-did-we-get-there/
Education in Israel - My Jewish Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2015, from
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/israel/Contemporary_Life/Society_and_Religious_Issues/Education_I.s
html?p=4

What does it mean to be a global citizen? (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2015, from
https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/ron-israel/what-does-it-mean-to-be-globalcitizen
Toward A New Tunisian Education System. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2015, from
http://www.globaleducationmagazine.com/tunisian-education-system/