No computers in our schools (illustration)
צילום: ablestock
Stuck in the 19th Century
Israeli education system clings to outdated, computer-free approach
Imagine the following: One night, swift dwarfs enter schools and do a terrible thing – they steal all the blackboards from the classrooms. This device, which has been used by teachers since the middle of the 19th Century, disappears. We can imagine that when the teachers arrive in the morning, they will immediately announce that they will not be teaching until new blackboards are found. The public would accept this, and the children will stay home.
And now, let’s make a sharp turn to an event we don’t need to imagine. The Knesset’s Education Committee recently held a meeting where an almost-secret figure was presented – Israel is ranked very low in terms of computerization at schools compared to other Western countries. There are no computers at our school, or else they are outdated and few.
Yet did anyone raise a hue and cry? Did anyone even hear about it up until a few days ago? A stolen blackboard would have provoked a major outrage, yet the absence of functioning computers at schools doesn’t excite anyone.
In fact, the “blackboard” that serves as a major gadget at almost any organization at this time – the computer – is almost unnecessary at our schools. Apparently they can make do with 19th Century technology.
However, recently we saw another “educational” development that is both related and unrelated to the above: Last year’s school efficiency indicators were published. We saw a marginal overall improvement compared to the previous year and a growing gap between Jews and Arabs and between different socioeconomic strata. This, in a nutshell, is the snapshot of Israel’s education system.
Our educational “beacon,” the matriculation diploma, pushes the entire system in the direction of outdated pedagogy, meager performance, and social gaps. It focuses on frontal teaching, based on memorization, without a real need to research, prepare assignments, presentations, etc. – educational processes that require computers.
A nuisance for principals
Meanwhile, more and more standardized tests are being introduced. These tests, more than showing us what the children learned, direct the entire system to what needs to be taught, and the result is clear: Whatever is not tested will not be taught.
The younger Israelis among us must still remember their matriculation exams (today there are 16 of those in grades 10 to 12.) They did not require computers back then, and they are not required today either, neither for the exams, nor for the efficiency indicator tests taken by fifth and eighth graders. In today’s reality, computers are mostly a nuisance for many principals that cost a fortunate and whose utility is unclear.
Of course, a great outcry emerged at the Knesset’s Education committee, and they already spoke about NIS 4 billion (more than one billion dollars) to be invested in order to rectify this disgrace. However, this is futile work: Computers become outdated every few years, and should they not be used (and generally speaking they won’t,) and after the students steal the mouse pads, cause physical and educational damages, and download photos of naked women as their screensaver – the Knesset’s Education Committee will again convene to hear that we’re doing badly.
Israeli officials have failed to realize that we need a different kind of pedagogy: Research instead of memorization, an intelligent alternate assessment instead of the current matriculation diploma, and giant leap into the 21st Century instead of a 19th Century approach.
Should this change not take place, we will continue to witness grim education emerging once in a while, with nothing being done about them.
The writer is a former high school principal and an Education Management PhD candidate
