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Jun 13, 2012
Doing Away With The Bagrut
In a surprising move, the Council for Higher Education today approved of a plan to open the doors of higher education even to students who never completed high school or their bagrut, matriculation, examinations.
The pre-academic track for completing bagrut studies will be drastically shortened. Someone who completed high school without doing the baguyot will only have to study for one year, and that year will be concentrated on specific studies. In addition another track will be opened to prepare for that - this track will take 3 months and will be designated for anybody who did not complete high school.
This reform in the education system is being implemented for the purpose of allowing students who dropped out of school to be granted a second chance in life. This is expected to help mainly the weaker sectors in society.
(source: Channel 2 News)
While the army issues still present a problem for Haredim wishing to obtain higher education, the lack of bagruyot and not having a high school diploma is another major obstacle that might no longer exist. The Haredi community should benefit from this greatly.
The only problem I can envision is if students think they no longer need the bagruyot, as there is a way around it. Will the bagrut exams be taken less seriously? Will more people drop out knowing that they can move on to higher education anyway? Why work hard in high school if it wont significantly affect your future anyway?
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The pre-academic track for completing bagrut studies will be drastically shortened. Someone who completed high school without doing the baguyot will only have to study for one year, and that year will be concentrated on specific studies. In addition another track will be opened to prepare for that - this track will take 3 months and will be designated for anybody who did not complete high school.
This reform in the education system is being implemented for the purpose of allowing students who dropped out of school to be granted a second chance in life. This is expected to help mainly the weaker sectors in society.
(source: Channel 2 News)
While the army issues still present a problem for Haredim wishing to obtain higher education, the lack of bagruyot and not having a high school diploma is another major obstacle that might no longer exist. The Haredi community should benefit from this greatly.
The only problem I can envision is if students think they no longer need the bagruyot, as there is a way around it. Will the bagrut exams be taken less seriously? Will more people drop out knowing that they can move on to higher education anyway? Why work hard in high school if it wont significantly affect your future anyway?
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If I learned about this in highschool, I would drop out in 11th grade, and then apply to college right away.
ReplyDeleteThere must be other rules that you aren't mentioning.
At that age, you really want to explore your options and not be stuck in a "track".
I agree there must be more details involved, but I mentioned everything that was mentioned in the article. It sounds like it might cause a disaster to the education/bagrut system, if it is only as mentioned in the source article.
ReplyDeleteEven if the bagrut is no longer necessary, those who take it (and do well) may still be deemed more prepared for college than those that do not. For example, in the US, the SAT II (what used to be called achievement tests) and AP exams are not necessary for getting into many colleges. However, those who take them and do well have a better chance of getting into top programs, receiving scholarships, convincing colleges to be flexible for whatever reasons, etc., since they have demonstrated a level of whatever-it-is-colleges-think-is-important. Those who don't take such exams can still attend college, but may have to settle for community college or whatever.
ReplyDeleteWhat are SAT IIs? Also when I took AP tests, they allowed me to skip classes in College, but they were not officially part of the entrance process.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Bagruts are not anything like American SAT tests.
Anon,
ReplyDeleteSAT IIs are what used to be called achievement tests (if only I had thought to write that in my first comment!).
True that APs are not necessarily part of any admission process, but if you have taken a bunch of AP courses and/or done well on achievement tests, the admissions boards were more likely to think well of you. Depending on the school, this could the difference between admission or not, or what kind of program you could be placed in within the school.
I wasn't saying that the tests are the same, just that if Bagruyot become optional, they will still maintain some value in the college admissions process here in Israel.
I have no idea what the "achievment tests" are either. I never had that growing up. There was SATs and ATCs, and then AP tests for getting out of classes in college.
ReplyDeleteBut the Bagrut isn't just about which school you get into, it defines your entire highschool career.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagrut