Together we can improve education!

The best and brightest to the field of education

Equal rights for all children

For the head of the Likud and his party, the field of education is one of the three central components that they plan to promote when they return to office. While the other two components - security-defense and socio-economic - have earned widespread attention, the area of education, which is so important and pertinent to everyone, has somehow been denied the proper attention.

Over the past two years MK Netanyahu has worked on an emergency plan for education, driven by the following important goals:

1. Returning values to the educational system.

 2. Causing a significant improvement in the scores and achievements of Israeli schoolchildren.

 3. Striving to provide equal opportunities for all schoolchildren in Israel.

 4. Widespread reform in the educational system.

 5. Upgrading the status of teachers in Israel.

These five fundamentals have been examined by Netanyahu and his team in cooperation with top professionals in education in Israel and the world. All of these ideas were recently put together by the various teams that worked on different topics and an alternative program for education was formulated to be implemented immediately upon the return of Netanyahu and the Likud to office.

One of the principles of the ‘Netanyahu Plan' states that ‘Good education is the best way to reduce social gaps in Israel". According to official studies carried out in recent years, as the number of years of schooling rises, so do that person's chances to find work and support himself respectably. The conclusion is clear: Good education for all is the best prescription for success in taking people out of the cycle of poverty, much more effective than stipends or allowances of one kind or another. That is why Netanyahu's program' would guarantee that education will not only be provided to the entire populace, but that the level of education will be such that it will enable every graduate of the educational system to take his place in the job market.

In contrast to conventional wisdom, the main problem of the educational system in Israel is not budgetary. The education budget in Israel, compared to other countries in the Western world, is higher than average. The tens of billions of shekels allocated by the state for education have not succeeded in making the system efficient and good. Increasing the budget can be helpful but only if the funds are used correctly and wisely. According to the figures available today, despite the sharp increase in the education budget, students' achievements are steadily dropping. This fact utterly contradicts the claims raised by various public figures and past governments, which are content to scatter meaningless slogans and seek easy solutions which are not appropriate to the problem. Instead Netanyahu and the Likud propose a new solution: strict selection and constant training for teachers in Israel along with a raise in salary will produce the desired results . It is important to emphasize that this is not just about raising salaries, as suggested constantly by politicians but rather, offering a wage increase that is contingent upon the strict, quality-based selection of teachers. That would solve two problems at once: on the one hand, it would upgrade the status of the teacher while at the same time, it would dramatically improve the level of teaching in Israel. Money alone is no guarantee of good education.

In his education program, Netanyahu points out another weakness of the educational system as it stands today. In the face of all logic, the present system does not focus on ‘the subjects that are really important.' The Likud intends to change the system totally to make it focus on the main subjects and sideline the less important subjects. The 'Netanyahu Plan' lists the seven most important subjects that Israeli school children must study:

 Reading and writing

 Math

 English

 Science

 Tanakh

 History and Zionism

 Computers

These subjects, which are also known as the ‘core curriculum', will prepare Israeli schoolchildren to confront life in the twenty-first century along with cultivating the values and belief in our right to live in the Land of Israel. According to the Netanyahu Plan, the educational system will devote most teaching hours to the core curriculum, and this will enable the pupil to make progress in these subjects rather than in subjects which are much less important.

We must not whitewash the problems that the educational system is facing. Low scores in international tests along with the rising violence in the schools and among youth demand a comprehensive effort to change the situation. No more band-aid solutions, but instead, a comprehensive plan that gives a solution to the full range of problems besetting the schools today. There must be a vision, aims, and objectives to strive for; we must not be satisfied with mediocrity. That explains why the Netanyahu Plan concentrates on five principles that must be promoted to lead Israel's pupils to their proper place among the top ten countries in the world:

1. Teaching should be entrusted to the best and brightest

2. Allow the principal do his job as head of the school.

 3. Focus on the core curriculum.

 4. Provide help to the weaker pupils rapidly.

 5. Restore values to education.

These five fundamentals represent the best, quickest, and in fact, the only way to restore education to its rightful position as it had been in the early days of the Sate. Let us do away with the ‘Zionist enterprises', with the ‘rule of the mediocre' and let us stop shrinking from the most basic values that connect us with our homeland.

In contrast to the previous programs for educational reform that dealt mainly with teachers' salaries, and only incidentally with an attempt to improve the educational system, the plan proposed by Netanyahu and the Likud relates to the educational system as one integral whole: Pupils, teachers, achievements, values. It is pointless to try to improve one element in this formula because it is only by treating all elements of the formula with equal seriousness that true improvement can take place. Good teachers, quality principals who are given authority, a focus on the important subjects, and providing help and support for each and every pupil without exception, along with restoring the lofty values upon which we were all educated - it is only by the combination of all of these that we can bring about the desired change.

Because this must be said: In recent years the educational system has been influenced by various and sundry plans for reform, some better, some worse. They all shared the same flaw: they focused on one part of the problem to the exclusion of the others and ignored the whole. Academic achievement is meaningless unless it is accompanied by values; good teachers are ineffective without a supportive and efficient administrator.

When the Likud returns to office, one of its first steps will be to raise the subject of education and put it as a priority on the agenda of the government and the Prime Minister, to make a substantive change in Israel's system of education. As the People of the Book, we are confident that this is doable. The only question we must answer frankly is whether within the marketplace of political ideas' today. There is a party with an alternative and comprehensive educational program with the faith, capability, and desire to bring about real change. It seems there is one answer: Only Netanyahu and the Likud have a comprehensive educational program that confronts the grave educational crisis besetting the country for many years. There is no shortcut to success. Those who persevere, believe and toil will ultimately achieve their goals.