Not just PISA, but also internal exams: Only 22% of ninth-grade students meet English requirements

The national tests of the RAMA (Meitzav) show that only 38% of students meet the requirements of the curriculum in their mother tongue. In Arabic-speaking schools, the rates are even lower, and among Bedouin students in the south, only 1% meet the requirements in English.

Day after publication The worrying PISA dataIt turns out that even the national tests of Ministry of Education published by RAME (the National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation in Education, an independent body operating within the framework of the Ministry of Education) paint a difficult picture. According to RAMA report in English וRAMA report in the mother tongue On the ninth-grade exams held in February 2025, only 22% of students met the curriculum requirements.English And only 38% met the requirements in their native language.

This does not mean that all other students do not know English or are not fluent in their native language. Rameh Emphasizes that they met the requirements partially, on a continuum between closeness to the required standard and significant gaps. However, even in this formulation, the result is difficult: a large majority of ninth-grade students did not reach the level that the Ministry of Education itself set in the curriculum.

The national tests are now called Swing testsThey are not the same as tests. PISA: While PISA tests how 15-year-olds use knowledge and skills in new contexts and allows for international comparison, momentum tests test the extent to which students have mastered the Israeli curriculum. Therefore, scores cannot be directly compared. However, when two different measurement systems indicate widespread weakness at the same age, it is difficult to attribute the result to a single test or a particular scoring system.

In English: Less than a quarter meet the requirements

The English test was taken by 30,256 students from 318 schools, with a participation rate of 82%. Only 22% of all test takers reached the level defined as meeting the requirements of the curriculum. In Hebrew-speaking schools, the rate was 27%, while in Arabic-speaking schools, it was only 9%.

Even within Hebrew-speaking education, large gaps were found. In state education, 31% of students met the requirements, compared to 16% in state-religious education and 7% in Haredi education. The average score in state education was 30 points higher than in state-religious education and 44 points higher than in Haredi education.

The most severe picture was recorded among Bedouin students in the south: 86% of them were classified at the lowest performance level, and only 1% met the requirements of the English curriculum. RAMA found disparities by socioeconomic background in all population groups examined.

Mother tongue: 38% meet the requirements

In the test BNative language 30,690 students from 322 schools participated, again with a participation rate of 82%. A total of 38% of students met the curriculum requirements: 44% in Hebrew-speaking schools, compared to 19% in Arabic-speaking schools. The average score of students in Arabic-speaking schools was 32 points lower than that of students in Hebrew-speaking schools.

Among Bedouin students in the south, only 6% met the requirements in their mother tongue, and their average score was 49 points lower than the national average. However, the report shows that a significant part of the gap between Hebrew-speaking and Arabic-speaking schools is related to socio-economic background: when comparing students from similar backgrounds, the gap narrows to 19 points for low-income students and 10 points for medium-income students.

Girls scored higher than boys in both language groups. The gap was 14 points among Hebrew speakers and 22 points among Arabic speakers. Another noteworthy statistic is that only 47% of students reported high motivation to succeed on the test; in state-religious education, the rate was 37%.

Not the same gauge, but the same warning light

The data does not allow us to determine whether this is a year-over-year decline. These were the first English and native language tests in ninth grade since the 2018/19 school year, and the RAMA states that their scores should not be compared directly to the previous cycle. The report cards are dated April 2026, but the tests themselves were administered in February 2025; therefore, this is not a real-time snapshot of the students now starting the school year.

Nevertheless, their meaning is clear. PISA data indicated difficulty in applying scientific and mathematical knowledge; national tests indicate that even in relation to the local curriculum, most ninth-grade students do not reach the required level in English and their mother tongue. Mastery of both languages ​​is a foundation for learning in almost every field, especially for reading scientific and technological material, understanding instructions, and acquiring independent knowledge.

The policy question also has an address.

The results also have a policy context. Attorney Avital Ben-Shlomo, who was the director of the education department at the Kohelet Forum – a right-wing libertarian institute – Appointed in 2023 as Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Education and was entrusted, among other things, with promoting administrative autonomy. She was not the director general of the ministry, andLeft her position at the end of 2024The appointment illustrated that ideas developed in the congregation found a direct path to the Ministry of Education administration.

Ecclesiastes Forum Presents a vision himself of decentralization of powers, competition and parental choice, a shift from control of resources to control of results, and providing public funding even to schools established by authorities, networks or associations. His people also promoted personal contracts for teachers and giving principals greater power in setting their salaries, steps that could weaken the power of teachers' organizations.

The concept of competition was also applied to the workers' organizations themselves. In June 2026 The Regional Labor Court ruled, as part of a temporary relief, that the "Teachers Leading Change" association had ostensibly proven that it is an authentic labor organization.. Until the main case is decided, its members will not be charged organizational handling fees to the Teachers' Union and that the Ministry of Education will allow teaching staff to report their membership in the new organization. According to the ruling, in 2023, the Kohelet Forum contributed approximately 108 shekels of the organization's total budget, which stood at approximately 113 shekels. Its founder Tal Luria also collaborated with Kohelet's education department in promoting the "flexible" employment model and eliminating salary increases based on seniority. During the high school teachers' wage struggle in 2024, the organization encouraged teachers to break the organizational measures announced by the Secondary Teachers' Union. However, the court noted that it was not proven that Kohelet continues to fund the organization in a significant way or directs its activities today, but that does not matter because its founders believe in the extremist ideology and have not been replaced.

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with teachers forming another organization, and competition between organizations may even benefit workers if it strengthens their ability to choose and bargain. The danger arises when a competing organization is used to divide workers' power, break strikes, and replace collective agreements with individual contracts. In such a situation, the "freedom of choice" of each teacher may become the loss of bargaining power for the entire teaching community.

The danger in this perception is exacerbated precisely in light of the test results. Competition and parental choice can benefit those who have information, time, money, and the ability to transport children to a desired school or to complete at home what is not learned in class. They do not in themselves provide the same tools for a poor family, a weak community, or a student who needs special assistance. When the starting point is not equal, transferring responsibility from the state to schools and parents may turn existing gaps into a permanent mechanism of separation.

The current data provide a preview of what could happen if the state continues to withdraw from its responsibility for public education and leaves each family to fend for itself. In a system where only 1% of Bedouin students in the south meet English requirements, the solution is not less responsibility and public investment, but greater and more targeted investment where the failure is deepest.

Billions for Haredi education – without sufficient enforcement of core studies

Kohelet is not the only problem. Another policy choice is to transfer large sums of money to Haredi educational institutions, even when the state does not ensure that they provide their students with the basic skills it demands of other Israeli students. Opinion published ahead of the 2025 budget It identified more than NIS 1.842 billion in coalition funds for Haredi educational institutions, claiming that they are being transferred without adequate supervision, control, and regulation. Not all of this amount was transferred to schools that do not teach the core curriculum, but it illustrates the magnitude of the budgetary preference. Among other things, it included NIS 32 million for incentives and nurturing in exempt institutions, which are not obligated to a full core curriculum.

The problem is not just what is written in the regulations, but what is enforced in practice. A review based on Ministry of Education data received in Freedom of Information requests It found that in 2014, budgets were deducted from only 6% of the Haredi network institutions for boys due to non-compliance with the core requirements. According to the examination, the ministry did not deduct any budgets from exempt institutions and recognized, unofficial institutions due to violation of the core obligation, even though about half of the boys in Haredi elementary education studied in such frameworks. Even when deductions were made, their average rate was about 6% of the institution's budget.

It is important to be precise: Haredi education is not a single entity. Haredi state schools are committed to a full core curriculum, and in girls' settings more general subjects are generally taught than in boys' settings. The criticism is directed mainly at boys' institutions that do not teach what is required and at the state that continues to fund them without using the enforcement tools at its disposal.

When only 7% of students in Haredi education who were tested in English meet the requirements, it is impossible to be satisfied with a vague call for “improving achievements.” If the state funds an educational institution, it must demand effective teaching of Hebrew, English, math, and science, measure performance, and deny budgetary supplements to institutions that refuse to do so. Budgeting without a core and without enforcement is not assistance to Haredi children; it is the denial of the tools they will need in adulthood for studies, employment, and financial independence.

The gaps between educational streams, language groups, and socioeconomic levels show that the national average conceals very different realities. In terms of Israel's scientific and technological future, the challenge is not just to raise the average, but to ensure that the opportunity to acquire basic skills does not depend on place of residence, the language of school, or the family's economic status.

Questions and Answers

Are momentum tests the same as the Meitzav tests?

This is the name that the National Achievement Tests Authority currently uses for the national achievement tests. It is still common practice among the public to refer to national tests of this type by the old name. stabilizer, but in current reports the official name is momentum tests.

Is it possible to compare the results of momentum tests to PISA results?

Not directly. PISA is an international test that tests the application of knowledge and skills, while Nnufa tests test mastery of the Israeli curriculum. The intersection between them is in the general conclusion, not in the grading scale.

Do the data indicate a decrease compared to previous years?

This cannot be determined from these reports. RAMA notes that these are the first tests in these subjects in the ninth grade since 2018/19, and that there is no basis for direct comparison to the previous cycle.

What is the most worrying statistic?

Nationally, only 22% of students met the English requirements. For some groups, the situation is much worse: 9% in Arabic-speaking schools and only 1% among Bedouin students in the south.

Do all Haredi educational institutions avoid core studies?

No. There are big differences between the frameworks, and the state-ultra-Orthodox schools are committed to a full core, but they constitute a minority that the government is harassing. The main problem is in white institutions that teach the core partially or do not meet the requirements, and in the weak budgetary enforcement of the Ministry of Education towards them. The "great men of Israel" who stand behind the demand not to teach anything that can help students in their lives and the politicians who help them are committing a great sin against all citizens of the State of Israel, some of whom cannot work and the other part finances a growing public of people who are unable to take care of themselves and continue to be dependent on the rabbis.

The scientific article

• National Achievements in the Mother Tongue for Grades 9 – 2015, RAMA
• National Achievements in English for Grades 9 – 2015, 2016

More on the subject on the science website

• Historic low in PISA tests: Is Israel losing the next generation of scientists and engineers?
• Israeli students dropped nine levels in mathematics and six levels in science
• Self-reflection on the alarming decline in the study of five math units
• The curriculum for middle schools has not changed for almost twenty years, no wonder Israeli students are failing

For the original publication: RAMA – National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation in Education: https://rama.gov.il/reports/eng9-national-2025