OECD Reports Highlight Israeli Government's Inability to Translate Policy into Results
A series of recent OECD reports on Israel's education, health, economy, and PISA 2025 results reveal a consistent pattern of governmental inefficiency, where inputs do not align with outputs. Despite significant investment in education, for example, class sizes remain large and PISA scores have declined sharply. In healthcare, however, Israel achieves excellent outcomes with comparatively lower infrastructure and staffing levels.
The education sector receives 6.1% of Israel's GDP, exceeding the OECD average of 4.7%, and students receive more mandatory instruction hours. Yet, elementary school class sizes have stagnated at 27 students for a decade, and middle school classes have grown to 30. PISA 2025 results showed Israel ranking near the bottom in math and reading, with a significant increase in students falling below basic proficiency levels, even among socio-economically advantaged students.
Conversely, Israel's healthcare system demonstrates strong life expectancy and low preventable mortality rates despite having fewer hospital beds and diagnostic imaging machines per capita than the OECD average. Staffing levels, particularly for nurses, are also considerably lower than the average, suggesting that high-quality outcomes are achieved through intense effort from medical professionals rather than optimal system design.
Economically, Israel faces high living costs, second only to Switzerland among OECD nations, despite a below-average GDP per capita. The OECD attributes this to cumbersome planning and licensing procedures, uncoordinated property taxation, and regulatory barriers that stifle competition, pointing to specific government ministries as responsible.
The World Bank's Government Effectiveness Index ranks Israel 28th globally, indicating a decline in the quality of public services and policy implementation. The consistent gap between policy and execution across multiple sectors over the past decade, even under long-serving leadership, suggests a systemic failure in the government's ability to translate declared priorities into tangible results.
