Transforming the Israeli school system

After 12 years of schooling, our current system leaves kids uninspired and ill-equipped for the real world.

By DALIA COHEN
Classroom in Israel. [File] (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Classroom in Israel. [File]
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
I’d like to begin by asking you a few questions:
• How many jobs today that were around 100 years ago are still doing the exact same thing in the same way?
• Can you think of a single industry that uses the same methods as back then?
• How about the classroom? Doesn’t it look remarkably similar to classrooms of 100 years ago?
Our teaching methods haven’t changed. They’re stuck. And they’re dated. But don’t take my word for it. The World Economic Forum says that change is badly needed. It argues that 65% of children starting school today will be in jobs that don’t yet exist and schools will need to provide students with key skills to be able to adapt – transferable skills for the workplace, creativity, as well as being up-to-date with technology.
I’m going to be speaking to you about why I agree that the school system is in need of radical reform – because of its dramatic failure to equip students for jobs of the future.
First, I’ll be giving evidence of problems in the school system, both from opinion leaders and observations from my 11 years in Israeli schools.
Second, I’ll be looking at why it hasn’t changed.
Third, I’ll be proposing some key solutions to fix it.
So first, what’s wrong with Israel’s educational system?
Schools are fond of grading students, so in that tradition, I would like to grade the school system on three criteria:
On promoting transferable skills for the future workplace – Change is needed. LinkedIn’s CEO, Jeff Werner, said that skills matter most in the job market, but employers are finding that they have to teach basic skills to graduates. So schools are clearly failing in this respect.
On inspiring creativity – could definitely do better. Evidence? Research by The LEGO Foundation found that, on average, 98% of three-year-olds have genius levels of creative thinking, but less than 2% of us retain those skills by the time we’re 25. In school, students can’t explore areas of their own interest. Instead, they follow an extremely structured curriculum, so schools are killing creativity.
On being up-to-date with technology – leaves much room for improvement. While innovations are reshaping our world, schools simply don’t integrate enough technology into learning! How could it be that the vast majority of the workforce uses technology on a regular basis, but in schools we don’t?!
After 12 years of schooling, our current system leaves kids uninspired and ill-equipped for the real world. Things have got to change!
Having explained what’s wrong with the system, I now want to cover my second point – what’s stopping us from fixing these issues?
The system has been unchanged for decades because education reforms have a high-risk factor, as millions of children’s futures are at stake.
Britain’s former prime minister, Tony Blair agrees, saying that it’s easy to say that education is important, and it’s even relatively easy to get extra investment for it. But making changes is difficult because of strong vested interests within the system.
As in any area, reforms and change have their opponents, and the school system would be no exception. And so we tread the familiar path even when it no longer makes sense.
Now we’ll come to my third and final point – solutions.
I’d like to examine the Finnish school system, which the OECD cites as the best educational system in the world. I believe adopting their methods could revolutionize Israeli schools.
In Finland, to promote transferable skills for the future workplace, instead of teaching the classic curriculum, schools focus on skills that can be adapted to any profession, soft skills such as: leadership, independent research and collaborative problem solving.
To address the concern about schools destroying creativity, Finnish classes interact in small groups and this gives students the opportunity to be inspired and learn from each other, discuss, debate, and share ideas, allowing their creativity to flourish.
Also, their schools integrate technology at a much faster pace into learning than the rest of the world. Computers, devices and apps are integral parts of Finnish students’ lessons.
What I’m proposing is that we need to take the Finnish school model and adapt it to fit the needs of children here in Israel. We should teach soft skills as well as subjects, have group-based learning, and integrate technology much faster than we currently do.
I’d like to end with a call to action: As an urgent priority, the Israeli Education Ministry must connect with their Finnish counterparts in order to learn from them, so that we can benefit from their methods as soon as possible.
If the Israeli government takes these problems seriously, and applies these solutions – consulting with and engaging Israeli education stakeholders along the way – I hope a report card of the Israeli education system in five years’ time will conclude that it has shown great improvement, and shows much promise for the future.
We may be too late for our education, but it’s definitely not too late to transform education for the next generation.
Dalia Cohen is a 17-year-old student at Ulpanat Amana High School in Kfar Saba and is an active participant in Ra’anana’s Young Ambassador and Model UN programs. This viewpoint is based on a speech she gave at Sia’h vaSig’s Harry Hurwitz National Public Speaking Competition on January 8, for which she received second place


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