Israeli Matriculation Exam Pass Rates Rise Despite Ongoing War

Israel's Ministry of Education has released its "National Education Picture" data for the 2025 academic year, revealing an increase in matriculation exam pass rates and excellence indicators despite the ongoing war. The data shows a rise in the percentage of students eligible for a high school diploma, reaching 77.9% in the 2025 academic year, up from 76.6% in 2024. This represents a 1.3 percentage point increase in a single year.

Excellence indicators also saw improvement, with the proportion of students achieving an "excellent" matriculation certificate climbing from 13.1% to 14.4%. The number of these high-achieving students grew by 2,205 to a total of 18,743 within the year. In the 2025 academic year, 78.4% of boys were eligible for the diploma compared to 77.4% of girls, a one percentage point gap favoring boys.

Progress was also noted in advanced studies. The percentage of students taking English at the 5-unit level increased from 46.8% in 2024 to 48.7% in 2025, and in mathematics, it rose from 16.0% to 17.1%.

The positive trend extended to student persistence and dropout rates. The persistence rate rose from 81% to 83.5%, while the national dropout rate decreased from 0.9% to 0.8%, equating to 6,272 students, a significant drop from 1.5% in the 2015 academic year.

Minister of Education Yoav Kisch commented on the findings, stating, "The data from the National Education Picture presents a broad, true, and important picture of the education system in Israel. An increase in matriculation eligibility, growth in the number of outstanding students, a significant reduction in socioeconomic gaps, and improvement in persistence indicators. This is the victory generation of the State of Israel, and our responsibility is to continue strengthening it, promoting excellence, and reducing gaps to give every student a real opportunity to succeed."