Israel's Education Minister Blamed for PISA Test Failures Amid War Claims
Translated & summarized from Vesty by baba
Israel's Education Minister Yoav Kisch blamed the war for the country's record-low PISA test scores, but critics argue the decline is due to neglect of public education and preferential funding for other sectors. Ukraine, despite a harsher war, showed significantly better results.
The story in 5 lines · by baba
- Israel's PISA scores hit record lows, with Minister Kisch blaming the war.
- Ukraine, facing a worse war, saw minimal score decline compared to Israel's drop.
- Critics accuse the government of neglecting public education and prioritizing other sectors.
- Minister Kisch focused minimally on PISA, prioritizing Haredi education funding.
- The Ministry of Education defended the results as a snapshot of learning during wartime.
Education Minister Yoav Kisch attributed Israel's poor performance on the latest PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) tests to the ongoing war. However, an analysis by Calcalist journalist Shahar Ilan highlights that Ukraine, despite facing a more severe and prolonged conflict, saw only a minor decline of 6 points in the tests, while Israel's scores dropped by 29 points.
The Berl Katznelson Foundation, which conducted a review, found that Minister Kisch dedicated only three out of approximately 4,500 meetings over three years to the PISA tests, with a significantly greater focus on funding for the Haredi education sector. The PISA-2025 results for 10th graders revealed Israel's lowest scores ever in mathematics, reading, and science, falling below the OECD average and into the lower quintile of developed nations. Notably, Israeli students in the "startup nation" scored 54 points below the OECD average in digital disciplines, placing Israel 54th out of 85 countries overall.
Kisch defended the results, stating that "after almost a year and a half of war, evacuations, and deep disruptions in learning continuity, these results are, in my opinion, a testament to the exceptional resilience of the Israeli education system." The Ministry of Education echoed this, calling PISA 2025 "primarily a snapshot of the state of learning during the war."
However, the foundation's research, led by Rami Good and Aviad Hominer-Rosenbaum, indicated that 83% of Ukrainian schools faced resource shortages due to the war, compared to 58% in Israel. Ukraine's decline in test scores was approximately one-fifth of Israel's: 6 points versus 29 points on average across the three sections. In science, Israel fell 23 points while Ukraine dropped only 1 point. In reading, Israel declined 38 points, and Ukraine 9 points. In 2022, Israel led Ukraine by 27 points on average; by 2025, this lead had shrunk to just 5 points.
Rami Good argued that blaming the war is merely an excuse, calling the PISA data a "serious indictment" of a government that has neglected public education while heavily funding sectarian systems that do not teach core subjects. He criticized the government for "draining public education of budgets and personnel, weakening its teachers and intimidating them, and then being surprised when the results collapse."
The Minister of Education's office responded by calling the focus on meeting logs "cheap populism aimed at creating a distorted picture." They asserted that the minister held numerous professional meetings and discussions, alongside site visits, aimed at improving student achievement, including the development of the "Realistic Israel" program to promote STEM studies.
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