Education Ministry said to excise principles of democracy from matriculation exams

The Education Ministry has decided that students will no longer be questioned in their matriculation exams on principles of liberal democracy, socioeconomic rights, the legal status of the Declaration of Independence, and the role of constitution in limiting actions by the government, according to a Sunday report.

The Marker financial daily published what it said was a focus document (Hebrew link) from the ministry, which showed that the topics had been removed from the civics matriculation exams.

The removed topics include chapters on government overreach, citizenship laws, the principles of liberal democracy, the parliamentary system, the legislative process and the role that the Declaration of Independence plays in Israeli constitutional law.

Students will still be examined on concepts of a state with a religious-traditional identity, the nation-state law, and the role of religious law in Israel, the report said.

While subjects that are not examined may still be taught during the school year, teachers told The Marker that in practice they rarely are.

Reacting to the decision, Yaniv Roznai, an associate professor and vice dean at Reichman University’s law school said that the move proves Israel is “in a major crisis and a struggle over the nature of the state and democracy.”

“Such a decision will result in high school graduates not understanding the importance of liberal democracy and the value base on which the state was founded,” he said.

“The past decade has seen a decline in the importance that Israelis attribute to the rule of law, to the protection of minority rights, and even to the existence of free elections as fundamental characteristics of the democratic regime,” Roznai said, adding, “It all starts with education.”

Dan Avnon of Hebrew University’s political science department said that the decision “harms students’ ability to come up with appropriate tools for a future struggle against governmental injustices.”

The report also quoted an Israeli civics teacher as saying, “We are expected to teach students about government corruption and attempts to weaken the courts using examples from other countries, while all this is happening here.”

“The Education Ministry is deciding for students what they need to know and creating a generation of students with a clear political bias,” the teacher added.

Contacted for comment by The Marker, the Education Ministry did not address whether students will be tested on the subjects and instead denied that the topics had been removed from the curriculum entirely.

Matriculation exams, known in Hebrew as bagrut, can have a significant impact on a student’s future. Scores are a major criterion examined in applications to elite military units and academic institutions. A matriculation certificate is awarded to students who pass the required examinations with a mark of 56 percent or higher in each area of study.

The ministry’s decision follows another controversial curriculum move made earlier this year, which mandated an hour of Bible study each week for all students in first to 12th grade, as well as additional mandatory classes on Zionism and “Israel’s wars and rebirth.”

Schools will also be required to bring students on tours of Jerusalem and Jewish heritage sites around the country, with an emphasis on sites in the West Bank.