AUGUST 30, 2026 15:50

Updated: AUGUST 30, 2026 16:14

As roughly 2.6 million Israeli pupils prepare to return to class on Tuesday, a fresh policy document highlighted sharply reduced public faith in the national education setup and urged major reforms in school management.

Issued by the One Hundred Initiative ahead of the September 1 start of the 2026-27 term, the document referenced studies showing Israelis rated the system at an average of just 4 out of 10, with a mere 3 percent viewing it as sound.

The data arrives as about 2.611 million learners are set to begin the year across 27,757 facilities, among them nearly 6,000 schools, per numbers shared by the Education Ministry with the Knesset Education Committee last week. Around 260,000 educators are projected to serve in the network.

Classes are due to open on Tuesday, September 1, the Education Ministry confirmed.

"In one week we will send our children into a troubled education network," the One Hundred Initiative stated in the document prepared for the coming term.

Overly centralized and bureaucratic, unable to meet student needs

The group portrayed the existing setup as excessively centralized and bureaucratic, contending that schools and principals hold too little authority to adapt to the requirements of their pupils and local areas.

Based on a February 2026 survey on national priorities and schooling referenced in the document, 61 percent of Israelis viewed education as one of the two top national concerns, ranking it with security and living costs.

Parents report schools feel out of touch with daily life

The survey also revealed that over 65 percent of parents viewed their child's school as detached from real-world conditions, the organization noted.

The lack of faith extended to decision makers: 41.8 percent of those polled said they trusted no one in the system to handle choices about their child, according to the paper.

The One Hundred Initiative said the numbers signaled a deep structural and leadership problem and pushed for shifting more control from the Education Ministry to municipalities, principals and communities.

One highlighted result concerned teacher employment. Seventy-one percent of parents backed giving principals and local bodies more leeway to reward strong teachers and release those seen as unfit, per the research.

Such steps would likely clash with Israel's influential teachers' unions, the report noted, requiring leaders ready to face the pushback.

A 50-30-20 framework for Israeli schools

Central to the group's plan is a "50:30:20" approach meant to split duties among the state, education streams and individual schools.

Under this plan, 50 percent of the educational structure would be set nationally and cover a shared Israeli core including math, English, science, civics and history plus common civic and national values.

Another 30 percent would be shaped by the education stream and local authority, letting communities cover their own identity, language and values inside the state system.

The final 20 percent would go to each school, allowing principals and communities more say over teaching approaches, priorities, staffing, flexible budgets and skills for a shifting world.

"Autonomy does not mean privatization," the paper stated, stressing that the state would keep setting standards, rules and funding while overseeing schools and passing daily control to the local level.

The plan also aims to tackle the split of Israeli schooling into four largely separate tracks: state-secular, state-religious, Arab and haredi education.

The document said gaps in funding, facilities and values across these tracks had widened social divides and called for a shared national base with space for community identities.

The One Hundred Initiative presents itself as a nonpartisan civic group promoting a centrist path on governance and society. Its Manor Center works on education policy and public schooling.

The group presented the education plan as a political test before Israel's elections, urging a broad government able to enact lasting structural reforms.

"The public sees that quick fixes will not suffice for the education system," the paper ended, urging leaders ready to rebuild it.