Last year then-Minister-of-Education Gideon Saar announced that he was looking into the possibility of considering parts of the Szold exams, taken in Haredi seminaries, to be equivalent to Bagrut exams. There was opposition to the plan, but Saar himself was in favor of it.

It turns out that the new Minister of Education, Shai Piron, might even go a step, or five, further. Piron is looking into an idea of completely doing away with the Bagrut examinations.

Piron is of the opinion that the Bagrut exams do not encourage learning. He said that everyone knows students buy prep papers right before the exams, and they do not really learn in preparation. Piron also believes that even without the bagruyot exams students will continue to learn - they are not learning because of the exams..
(source: Israel Hayom)

no bagruyot? they will have solved, in one swoop, a large part of the problem holding back haredim from higher education and from many jobs and other opportunities. Getting rid of the bagruyot might not help many haredim, as they are still lacking the education and would need to fill those educational gaps, or some of them at least, to get those opportunities, but some are smart, talented and some do get various levels of education and are only lacking the exams... without requiring the exams, these people would have an easier time integrating into the system..

Rabbi Shai Peron did something very interesting yesterday. That is, something interesting besides for being sworn in to the Knesset.

According to INN, Peron followed a Hassidic dictum that states that when a person rises to greatness he should  put pebbles in his shoe. they will give him pain, while he is holding his position of greatness, and serve as a reminder that he is there to serve people who are in pain. The pebble will serve as a reminder to not allow the greatness to get to his head.

Rabbi Peron said that before going to the Knesset inauguration he placed a pebble in his shoe. As he said, "it is small, but it hurts". I think this is a sense of humility and awareness that is to be admired.

Let it serve as the reminder it was intended to be, so that he and his peers will remember that they are messengers of the people, they are there to better the communal and private life of Israel's citizens and of the Jews around the world. They are the caretakers of the Land for all of us, and they are not there for their personal benefit.