Since 1973 there has been a sharp turn in Israel's research universities. In 2005, the standard of living was 80% higher than in 1973, but the relative number of faculty members dropped by about half - to only 71 researchers per 100 residents.
by Dan Ben David -
There are four fields of science in which the Nobel Prize is awarded - physics, chemistry, medicine and economics. Winning one of these four fields is considered the pinnacle of scientific achievement.
About 200 member states of the United Nations. Only the citizens of 20 of them won the Nobel Prize in the fields of science in the current decade. Of these, only four countries had more Nobel Prize laureates in the fields of science than the State of Israel, where five citizens won the world's most prestigious prize.
However, when you compare the number of Nobel laureates in the fields of science in the current decade according to the criterion of a percentage of the population - no country even comes close to Israel. The number of Israeli winners per million citizens is three times greater than in the countries ranked after Israel.
Today's Israeli grooms are the product of a higher education system of the distant past - belonging to a generation that aspired to be a light to the Gentiles. In 1950, the State of Israel had a million and a quarter residents and only 138 senior faculty members. In 1973, there were already seven universities here with 4,389 senior faculty members - that is, 134 researchers per 100 residents.
The country was still relatively poor in 1973, with a GDP per capita of NIS 4,587 per month (at 2008 prices), but with a vision greater than its dimensions. In order to fulfill it, Israeli society was willing to sacrifice a great deal in other areas. The investments made then prepared the country for the high-tech boom of the 80s and 90s. The understanding that was the property of the Israeli leadership at the very beginning - that such a country, in such a place, would not only have to reach the envelope of human knowledge but also break through it - gave birth to investments whose fruits are reaped by the pioneers of science in the Nobel Prizes today.
But what will happen in the future? Since 1973 there has been a sharp turn in Israel's research universities. In 2005, the standard of living was 80% higher than in 1973, but the relative number of faculty members dropped by about half - to only 71 researchers per 100 residents. At the Technion, the number of standards increased during this period by only one researcher - while the country's population doubled. In the two flagships of Israeli academia, the Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University, the proportion of researchers in 2005 was 14% and 21% less than in 1973.
It's not accidental. National priorities have shifted from one end to the other. If in 1978 the public expenditure per university student was 61% of GDP per capita - by 2005 it had dropped to only 29% of GDP per capita - about a quarter lower than the average of Western OECD countries. At the bastion of Nobel Prize winners in economics, the University of Chicago, it is said that there are no free meals. The founding fathers of Israel knew this, and from the meal they prepared we are fed today. But what will happen to the next generation - the one that has been receiving the worst education in the Western world for years even before it reaches the universities? Who will invent the patents that will compete with the rich economies and emerging giants? Who will invent the military advantages that cover up the numerical disadvantages? Who will be the researchers who will teach the teachers, engineers and scientists who will lead the next generation?
The age of about half of the faculty members in universities today is over 55. According to the law, they will have to retire within one decade. Who will replace them?
It was once a poor country with a great vision.
The author is the CEO of the Taub Center for Social Policy Research in Israel and a professor of economics at Tel Aviv University
14 תגובות
In my opinion, the continuous disregard for education is the one that will bring about the destruction of the State of Israel.
As it stands today we are not that far from the end.
Maybe a decade or two, maybe less.
I really hope I'm wrong...
Eddie:
It's all the same.
There is no point in coming to materialism with claims.
If you value the teaching profession and those involved in it, there is no reason not to pay them what they deserve.
That's why I talked in general about budgets for the education system (which are mainly teachers' salaries).
There is certainly a lot to improve in the education system.
It is certain that the culture of television and the Internet affects the investment in studies on the part of the students - negatively.
All of these must be taken care of, if you want to achieve achievements in the field of education.
But I want to add another element, which in my opinion is the problem of depth in the issue of educational failure in the country. The problem is the status of education and education agents in society, in a specific way, and the excessive materialistic value system that took over the country from the second half of the 70s to the last century, in general. And there is a connection between the two things.
The scale of social values in the country began to change in the second half of the 70s: Israeli society began to value making money and the businessman more and more, at the expense of cultural creation and science in particular, the intellectual and the scientist. The value or scientific 'truth', the value or scientific 'ideal' - are no longer important in themselves, and the desire for them has disappeared. The scholar became a ridiculed figure, and the scientist - a clumsy figure, who had not yet grasped the new social principle.
Thus, the most prestigious faculty in the late 70s became the Faculty of Law - because people expected to acquire a shiny and lucrative profession. Then, when the number of lawyers was high and the market was flooded - people began to prefer business administration in droves - a direct way to make money. Fewer and fewer talented people thought of studying physics or chemistry, let alone mathematics or teaching or even philosophy or literature. Even when times changed - people turned to study computers - again for the same reason of the chance to make money - and not mathematics for example.
People also stopped studying in high school properly - because there is no reason to work hard on intellectual personal development. In any case, after the army (and after the mandatory trip to South America or India) we will become some kind of celebrity, and if not - we will learn a profession that makes money, and why waste energy on useless things... In the meantime, the main thing is to pass the time in a hedonistic 'easy'... this is what we perceive from the television - The 'hands-on' life, the life that does not oblige us to transcend and invest.
Of course, this new culture, apart from the ideology of materialism and unburdening of commitment to transcendence - also introduces destructive behavior patterns into the student's daily repertoire. So apart from the fact that he spends a huge amount of time on TV and the Internet for nothing, he also gets busy sometimes - drinking, hanging out and even drugs. The head is in such places - that it is difficult to expect that the student will make room in his head for studies and it is difficult to assume that he will have reserves of energy to invest in them.
This new culture had loyal agents - the media, especially television - led by a very specific group from a socio-economic, cultural, and political point of view.
In such an atmosphere of worshiping the threshold and golden calf, and in the reality of eating and drinking - it is impossible to expect investing students, investing teachers and believing in their destiny, and a stimulating culture.
That's why the students, (with a few exceptions - who teach about the general) and the entire teaching system - look like they do.
Mickey:
Do not take the blame of the education system as a personal matter.
There is no doubt that the education system is to blame.
After all, the differences between the different homes and their ability to educate the children are well known and the education system was built precisely to moderate the effect of the inequality between the families!
The point is, of course, that the education system cannot take care of itself if it does not have sufficient backing from the citizens and if the citizens do not understand the importance of education and allow the government, for example, to give up its budgets in favor of the ultra-Orthodox training system - the education system has no chance.
In addition to this - if the demands on the student decrease from year to year due to the pressure of citizens who want everyone to receive a certificate - even if they cause the certificate to not be worth the paper it is written on - and as a result strange "learning" trends arise such as the basketball trend, study materials are found from the program (such as construction problems in geometry) and evasion techniques are introduced such as focus - the deterioration is inevitable.
Mickey,
You are right about home education. This is a critical point. However, and perhaps as a result of this, the education system should, but is finding it difficult, to direct the children and youth today to want to learn - not to exempt itself and only give support to those who want to learn, but to make those who do not want to learn want to learn. Not every home is a warm and loving, well-off and valuable family home. That is why it is not possible to expect the parents to do the work of education for values and culture: one of the goals of the education system as a framework for the student is to raise those children from families and unhealthy upbringing environments beyond what they are capable of or in other words to give those children a chance to align. So lift your eyes up and try to pick up that line that should be there. It's easy to let that line fall, and that's what happens over the years - it goes down and down.
Regarding the letter, I definitely agree - I hung it on the fridge when it was published :)
I am a teacher. As a teacher and educator, I see things directly and do not need research and articles. And in a direct view, I would also like to say that the education system does a lot for every student who wants to learn. Every student who wants to study receives and will receive almost any support. There are deficiencies in the education system, but it should not be blamed for the failures of the current generation. In my opinion, emphasis should be placed on education at home. I am a witness to many cases where the parents expect the system to educate the generation and that is not the case. Parents must educate their children in both studies and culture. As for the complaints against the system: you don't give your slaves and boys tell us Esau - on the one hand they expect the system to educate the next generation and on the other hand they don't allow enforcement and punishment measures. Have those article writers and researchers ever tried to reprimand a student? Or to be expelled from school due to serious disciplinary violations [violations that prevent an entire class from learning]? Try and prove.
Ami:
The problem is in the education system.
There is no genetic change in humanity that causes children to waste time on television.
What causes this is their education - at home and outside the home.
We all know the fact that the education system is on the rocks and it has already been discussed here a lot.
One example article:
https://www.hayadan.org.il/sylabuses-didnt-chage-for-tewnty-years-0802096/
What is the importance of the Nobel Prize? This is not a scientific award at all.
It is enough to remember that the killer Arafat received a Nobel Peace Prize.
Ami is 100% right and besides a computer there is also a multi-channel television, which also contributes to distraction with nonsense, which was not the case before.
Haha what nonsense, in 73 the standard of living was much higher than today, today if both spouses don't go out to work you can hardly live.
Right, but not from the reasons in the article. The current generation receives excellent study conditions. Today's schools give and enable almost everyone to reach their full potential. Today's education system, with all the criticism, is a much better system than the system of the seventies. The problem is generational. The current generation is, for the most part, addicted to the computer. You don't have a young person who doesn't stare at the computer screen for hours playing games, chatting, and other vegetables. Computer games occupy and fill the world of the current generation. No reading books, no going to the bookstore, no going to youth movements and more. As a person of the seventies I say that we are no more righteous than the current generation, but ours did not have the temptations that the computer offers today. The solution is in the hands of the parents who must understand the problem and take back the authority to limit or even deny the use of the computer. And the blame for the ignorance of the current generation should not be placed on the education system. And to all the detractors - a computer is needed as a work tool and it is a wonderful thing, but not in the hands of youth.
About twenty percent of the Nobel Prize winners are Jews. The nation of Israel where a large part of the Jews wins a small part of the prizes. If the education in Israel was the same as that provided in the Diaspora, we should have many more Nobel Prizes.
Since the founding of the country, we should have had dozens of Nobel Prize winners, not just one!
Here you see the big failure
Shabbat Shalom
Yehuda Sabdarmish
Allow me to comment: there are excellent works that did not win the Nobel, and on the other hand, there are those that are not clear about what is so special about them, and they won. The Nobel is clearly not the pinnacle of achievement in science, but the most extroverted award.
Another thing: a huge amount of Israeli scientists work abroad. When they win the Nobel Prize, if they win, we will not hesitate to take credit for it, even if only partially. But these do not appear in your statistics.