Israeli Students Show Alarming Low Proficiency in Science and English

New "Tnu'fa" test results, Israel's new matriculation exams, reveal a significant decline in student proficiency. In science, 81% of ninth graders scored at a low or very low level, with only 3% meeting the required standards. English results for sixth graders were also concerning, with 48% performing at a low level and just 36% meeting requirements.

These findings follow Israel's historically poor performance in the PISA 2025 tests for ninth graders, which showed the steepest declines ever recorded among participating nations. The "Tnu'fa" results were withheld for months by Education Minister Yoav Kisch, who reportedly sought to prevent the publication of these "failures." Kisch released unapproved drafts of the exams the previous evening, seemingly to overshadow them with the PISA results, before the National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation in Education (RAA) officially published the data today.

Interestingly, the data suggests a narrowing of achievement gaps between Arab and Jewish students in some subjects. For instance, in ninth-grade science, Arab students scored only one point lower on average than Jewish students. In sixth-grade English, Arab students even led by one point. However, the report highlights that only 20% of Arab students meet the curriculum requirements in Hebrew, a critical issue for their future higher education and employment prospects. Among Druze students, 29% met full requirements, compared to 24% of Arab students and a mere 11% of Bedouin students in the south.

Students from low socioeconomic backgrounds also showed significant struggles, with 50% performing at a low level. The article questions whether the apparent closing of gaps is due to genuine progress or a sharp decline in the educational achievements of non-Haredi Jewish students, potentially exacerbated by the ongoing war.