Students will have five final exams instead of seven due to coronavirus

The goal is to achieve the smallest number of students being tested in a single class room.

By OMRI RON
A GROUP of junior high school students are demanding the government fulfill its educational duty to them. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
A GROUP of junior high school students are demanding the government fulfill its educational duty to them.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
The Education Ministry has decided that the final exams, also called bagrut exams, will be held with emergency guidelines, as ministry officials are uncertain as to when schools will reopen.
As schools were closed on March 12, two alternatives were proposed, depending on what would happen. One option was schools returning to regular activity after Passover and the bagrut tests would have been updated and moved to July.
The other option, which the Ministry of Education has chosen, was having the students taking each exam will be limited, having more freedom in choosing which exams are to be taken and spreading the exams across different days of the week.
Bagrut exams will be condensed into five weeks, starting on June 22 and ending in late July. Additionally, students will be tested in only five exams rather than the usual seven.
A new exam schedule will be published by the eve of Passover to accomplish the ministry's goal of letting the students of this year get their diploma this year.
These exams will be available to students:
- Mandatory subjects: Math, English and Hebrew
- One of three subjects in the humanities: Literature, Bible, History or Social Studies
- One scientific subject: Chemistry, Physics, Biology or Computer Science
Students will not be tested in their electives and will be graded on a curve.
The following to be noted:
-This emergency exam procedure is synchronized with the IDF and academia
-The Education Ministry will have study marathons in preparation for these exams
- Remote classes will continue and will be expanded
- 12th graders have already taken some of their exams
- 11th graders still have a year of school ahead of them in which they will study normally
- There will be adjustments for different populations, as well as impoverished communities
"As I've stated, we're set up for every scenario," Education Minister Rafi Peretz said. "We've prepared alternatives with the central goal being the students' best interest, as such we're working so that the students of 2020 will have their diploma. I've worked with the Council for Higher Education to ensure that this diploma will be valid, as well as speaking with the IDF to allow for their enlistment dates to be postponed so that they can get to their exams."
"The education system is keeping its principals and its vision, and we're doing everything in our power to ensure that despite the coronavirus - no student in Israel is hurt," the Director General of the Education Ministry, Shmuel Abuav said.
"We've conceived of several scenarios, to allow the teaching staff to prepare properly, and at Passover eve, we're executing our plan of operation which will ensure that every student can finish their studies this year with a diploma in hand. We've made a new testing schedule, expanded the choices given students and we are set to have the exams in wide distribution and minimum participants at the same time."


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