Ramat Hasharon sets off education reform

The program aims to create strong individual relationships between teachers and their students, and aims to encourage excellence in each student.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY
Even before any reforms of the education system take place around the country, Ramat Hasharon has embarked on its own special program to improve its education system, reports www.local.co.il. In a program unlike any other so far in Israel, the city has reduced the number of students in eight of its 10th-grade classes to just 15, compared with up to 40 elsewhere, and is aiming to obtain a 100 percent matriculation pass rate by the time the students finish 12th grade. According to the report, at the beginning of the current school year Ramat Hasharon embarked on its unique "Tochnit Hame'a," or Program of the Century, but also an acronym for "Pathway of Belief in Success." The program aims to create strong individual relationships between teachers and their students, and aims to encourage excellence in each student. As part of the program, four classes in each of the city's two high schools were reduced to just 15 students each, with an extra two classes opened in each school to cater for the remaining students. The reduced classes, which take in 130 of the city's 440 10th-grade students, receive up to five extra lessons weekly. Educators involved in planning the program emphasized that the reduced classes are "heterogenous" and are made up of students of all levels. The program, which has received Education Department approval, is being funded out of the municipality's education budget. "The students in this program are gaining the latest in instruction and education," a spokeswoman said, adding that the teachers had undergone a special course in how to obtain the best from each student. She added that other cities and education institutions had begun making inquiries about the program.