Just half of Israeli teens pass 2014 matriculation
Only 52.7% of 17- and 18-year-olds receive graduation certificate, slightly less than previous year
Just over half of Israeli high school-aged students who took a set of national examinations in 2014 achieved the scores necessary to graduate.
Only 52.7% of Israeli teens across aged 17-18 earned matriculation certificates for 2014 — down from 53.4% the previous year. The statistic includes all Israelis born during the 1996-1997 school year, regardless of whether or not they attended school.
The comparatively low figure — as compared to other OECD countries — is at least partly attributable to to minimal high school attendance rates in the Jewish ultra-Orthodox community and the Bedouin sector.
When the statistics are weighted to include only those teens who attended high school, the number of those who meet matriculation requirements jumps to 65.5% — up from 64.2% last year.
The Education Ministry released the statistic for the 2013-2014 school year on Tuesday.
Among Jewish 12th-graders, excluding those in the ultra-Orthodox school system, 75.1% qualified to graduate. But in the ultra-Orthodox sector, only 8.6 percent earned a matriculation certificate in 2014, the lowest figure in six years. Of those ultra-Orthodox students who attended school, only 15.9% achieved high enough scores.
In the non-Jewish school system, the overall figure stood at 59% — an increase from 55.5 percent in 2013. Among Bedouin 12th-graders, the statistic stands at 47.5%. But when weighted to include all non-Jewish Israeli teens, including those who did not attend school, the graduation rate drops to 45.9%.
Weighted for gender, 68.7% of girls who attended high school received their matriculation certificates in 2014, compared to 61.8% of boys.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett weighed in on the results: “Better matriculation scores aren’t simply an educational endeavor — they’re a national one,” he said.
“The Israeli economy of tomorrow is the matriculation certificate of today,” he said. “We want to instill the notion that education is not a matter of geography, but of motivation, and we will reduce the gaps between the periphery and the center.”
The Times of Israel Community.