The RAMA data published last week on the achievements of ninth-grade students in Israel should trouble anyone who cares about the future of Israel’s children. RAMA, Israel’s National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation in Education, revealed two alarming realities: many students are not reaching the required level, and the gaps between population groups are enormous. For example, in native-language studies, 44% of students in Hebrew-speaking schools reach the required level of achievement, which compares with 19% in Arabic-speaking schools. In English, the situation is even worse: 27% compared with 9%, respectively. In science, the national figure is so low at just 3% that almost any internal breakdown becomes irrelevant.
Behind the data are our children. Not percentages, not graphs, and not tables. Before these gaps become a societal problem, they are first the pain of a child who experiences failure day after day, in the very place where they are supposed to succeed.
A learning gap that is not closed in time is not only a gap in knowledge. It can harm a child’s sense of capability, distance them from learning, and lead to hidden dropout. And when a child does not succeed over time, they may seek recognition, power, and belonging elsewhere - sometimes through paths of risk and violence. A child who does not sufficiently master their native language, English, or other core subjects, may gradually lose faith in their ability to succeed. And when this harm accumulates, it becomes a loss of potential, a deepening of social gaps, and a heavy economic and public cost: less integration and a greater need for corrective responses.
Measurable mechanisms
This is not a future problem. It is happening here and now, and it concerns us all.
The data paint a picture far broader than one subject, one grade level, or one test. If we expect every child to leave the education system with knowledge, language, and basic tools for life, as defined by the education system itself, we must ask ourselves honestly whether we as a society are succeeding in bringing every child to this outcome.
In order for learning gaps not to become a decree of fate, a deep pedagogical change is required, conceptual rather than technical, grounded in the system’s commitment to bring every student to the required goals. Every school must have a permanent, daily, and measurable mechanism for the early identification of students who are not acquiring foundational skills, along with focused, accelerated, and time-limited intervention to close gaps, without creating new ones in the process.
The goals must be clear, the instruction must be adapted, and the monitoring must be continuous. It is not enough to operate a program, add hours, or declare a goal. The mere existence of the program is not the objective, the outcome is. Therefore, programs must be measured externally on a regular basis and adjusted in real time when they do not produce the expected results.
Proven programs for change
This claim is not theoretical.
At the Yeholot nonprofit organization, we have worked for more than 25 years to reduce learning gaps, prevent dropout, and increase matriculation eligibility among students in Israel’s social and geographic periphery. Over the years we have shown that success is possible even with students experiencing hidden dropout or at risk of leaving school entirely.
For example, the Yeholot Start Program is designed for students who reach the end of ninth grade with deep learning gaps and low academic achievement. The program operates inside schools, with the schools’ own teachers, based on Yeholot’s unique pedagogy. According to a recent Tel Aviv University evaluation report for the 2023/24 school year, students in the program began at the end of ninth grade with an average grade of 47.7 and an average of 6.9 failed subjects per student. Despite this starting point, 98.4% of students who began the program completed twelfth grade within it, and 81.1% of twelfth-grade students in the program earned a matriculation certificate. The result is clear: even within the existing system, deep, measurable, and consistent pedagogical and organizational change can produce dramatically different outcomes as long as they operate differently.
A national mission
The RAMA data cannot remain just another passing news item. They require us to make it a national mission of the highest order to ensure that every child graduate from the education system with the knowledge, language, and basic tools needed for life. That mission must also include breaking the link between belonging to a particular population group and the likelihood of reaching the required academic level.
This is not a question of charity toward those who have been left behind. It is a question of responsibility for the future of Israeli society: less failure, less disconnection, and more belonging.
Yardena Bagantz is CEO of Yeholot, an Israeli educational nonprofit working to reduce learning gaps, prevent dropout, and increase matriculation eligibility among students in Israel’s social and geographic periphery.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on June 1, 2026.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2026.