It's the secular who refuse to teach core subjects: i.e. Torah, including the Ten Commandments, the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, Shema Yisrael prayer, Tefilin and other fundamental social commandments that EVERY Jew must know and certainly every Jewish school in Israel. Mishnayot and Gemara for boys must also be taught beginning in Elementary grades.

learning Torah in a non-violent atmosphere. TRUE PRIDE to Israel and to Jews all over.

First, Make up your mind. If Israeli education is crap, why shove it down the Haredim's throat. 2nd, Israel's demise will not come about from the lack of what you consider education. Our Jewish existence, was, is and will be, secured by our continuous living according to the will of G-d, which you lack. The Jewish people do not lack enemies, but what is sad, is the faith-less, non believing, Israeli, who never sees their own faults. It is easier to play the BLAME GAME. The Torah Jew will prevail, G-d Willing.

By self-admission the Israeli secular education system has collapsed and is presently continuing only through inertia. The Haredi system is burgeoning, by all reports, but going in a different direction tot he secular one - for understandable and perhaps logically acceptable reasons. When I went to school. back in the dark ages, teachers set an example to their students first and foremost by their self-restraint and professionalism. The role models I was saw have remained with me till today. This academic gold-standard is diametrically opposed to the values of modern Israeli society to the extent that there is absolutely no hope of ever recouping it. If you want the state to go in the direction it is going, you can forget about an educational system that teaches anything more than the basic 3 r's - and be thankful if even that is achieved.

You did not become a school "principle", you became a "principal". The irony is astounding and should be addressed--are there editors who proofread these horribly edited articles??

Also, most Israelis learn English from television and music that is popular worldwide. The Haredim have a disadvantage there as well because they do not engage in such "worldly" pursuits. Shalom is crazy if he thinks that gemara is a core subject, or anything besides an outdated, irrelevant code of laws that has no bearing in a modern country. If one wants to dabble in irrelevant "historical" documents on their own time to such great extent, let them. NOT in a public classroom.

the brink of collapse. Why? Because it is not on the brink of collapse its actually fine, but people bitch and complain and the only way to get attention is to make everything so bad that you'd think banana is a dying fruit, and meat is on the verge of extinction, israelis schools are so poor that they don't offer Hebrew (to save pencil lead) and that people are so poor that they have to find food outside their own homes... like in restaurants.

There is a need for manual workers in every country and that need has destroyed Europe because it imported Muslims to do the menial jobs. Israel will thankfully not have that problem. "Israel has the highest rate of high school matriculations among OECD nations"; sounds good to me. We should fire around 75% of our professors who are extreme left wing. They are mostly pro-Arab (which is one of the main thrusts of the article) and anti-Israeli and they should not be allowed to influence young people that are entrusted to them. Any teacher that refuses to allow a student into a class (for example) because he is wearing an IDF uniform should be fired on the spot, along with those that promote Peace Now and Bet Zetzlem etc.

Maybe the huigh number of wacko rresponses to this article is indicative of the dire situation in which the educational system is in. The Haredi system, as it currently exists, is turning its constituency into a Jewish Iran. The fact that they don't offer core courses--speaks to the bankruptcy of the system that allows them to take govt. money but not follow a govt. curriculum. The disciplinary siutaion reflects the poor discliplinary system in Israel as a whole--and the poor teachers' salaries reflects the fact when it comes down to it, Israelis think their kids are not worth bothering about.

1. corruption in the education system so high that by the time the money gets to the teachers its had a large number of it sliced. This i say because the country's percentage of its income investment in education is one of the highest in the world. 2. Elementary school doesn't teach anything and all you learn starts in middle school. Why not change that? Teach the kids to do algebra already in 5th grade why wait until 7th-8t grade to do it? The same thing applies to the middle school. There are too many worthless subjects learned before high school that are a 100% wast of time while the science subjects are in such a slow advance that it gets people sick of them. Kids arn't stupid they CAN learn algebra in 5th grade and if that happens they will less likely be bored of the wast of time in math class. That worked in the far east and it can work here as well.

You cannot call israel a progressive western country when you have a sizeable portion of the population learning the rubbish Shalom mentions in talkback 1. Israel will become a 3rd world country mired in corruption and religion like its arab neighbours if we dont do something

As a new immigrant to Israel with a child in first grade, I can truly understand the useless education system here. In the UK you start school at 4 or 5, in Israel it is 6, and that is not for a full day, it is from 8 til 1pm, and in that time they try to cram in as much as possible, my son has 7 lessons a day! The teachers treat kids like a production line of drones and my child has ADHD and some other issues, and the schools response is not to have teaching assistants, but to say he needs drugs and basically until he does, then i have to take him out early as they cannot control him. The biggest mistake i made was trusting my son to the education system here, it is useless and to be honest if i could move back to the UK i would in an instant. Over crowded schools, everything is over charged at his school and teachers who do not care! Breeding arsim and cocky kids, who cannot read properly or count and do not geography or world history or world religions, which is another stupid idea here, why not learn about Islam/christianity and Judaism? Why not broaden the childs knowledge and in secular schools, at least have some jewish studies class, I dont get that at all, in the UK, state schools teach world religions, so a Catholic child from London will know more about judaism than a child in the israeli education system?? The whole thing is run like a third world country!