The Minister of Science, Culture and Sports, MK Ofir Paz-Fines announced the success of the "Thousand Scholarships" program at the closing ceremony of the project which took place on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 at Tel Aviv University. During the ceremony, awards of excellence will be awarded to students who invested the most of their time and made efforts for the advancement of the students.
5.5 million NIS were invested in the program during which 1000 scholarships were distributed to needy students from all over the country for exact sciences, natural sciences and technological sciences. In return, each scholar committed to inaugurate for 100 hours students from grades XNUMX-XNUMX from the periphery and distressed neighborhoods.
About 1500 students received assistance in the matriculation exams in the sciences in order to allow them to improve their grades, increase the percentage of those eligible for matriculation and encourage them to choose these subjects in the academy as well. The average score before the initiation was 56 and at the end, the average score of the defender was 81.
Another rationale of the project was a combination of academia and community; All universities and most colleges of science, as well as funds to encourage higher education, took part in the program. The Ministry of Science, Culture and Sports was a partner in the concern of the higher education institutions in view of the continuous and alarming decrease in the number of students in the various sciences. Israel's future scientific-research infrastructure has been damaged. The project was designed to start changing this trend already at the school stage and was indeed successful in this area. From the sample tested so far, it appears that the students who were educated by the Malagaim improved their grades in the science professions by about 40%.
The Ministry of Science is very concerned about the decline in popularity of science in Israel, the "brain drain" abroad and the drastic decrease in government budgets for research. The solution, says the chief scientist, Prof. Mina Teicher, is simple - "scientists need to be turned into celebrities."
"We are organizing a series of 13 TV shows, something like a scientist is born," today Prof. Teicher surprised the participants in the Knesset's Science and Technology Committee. The Minister of Science and Technology, Ofir Pines, who came to review his ministry's policies and budgets for 2006 before the committee, expressed support for the creative solution. "There has been a devaluation of the status of scientists such as Nobel laureates, who we did not succeed - and perhaps we did not even try - to turn them into cultural heroes and role models and influence the youth," said Pines.
"What is happening is that the high-quality cream, the best minds in Israel, are offering them tempting offers abroad and we have no answer," explained the chairman of the Science and Technology Committee, MK Zebulon Orlev. "Secondly, entire fields of science are degenerating because they are not economical. For example, on the subject of earthquakes, and the fields of education and health. Not in every field will the entrepreneur invest in research. There are areas here that are directly related to the security and well-being of the citizen, and one cannot be satisfied with economic evidence alone."
