News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) According to the recently released Bank of Israel report, the gaps in academic achievement between students from rich families and students from poor families have not decreased over the past decade.  In the 1992-1993 school year, 64 percent of students from the richest 20 percent of Israeli families passed their Bagrut (Matriculation) exams, while only 39 percent of those from the poorest 20 percent did the same. 

In the 2004-2005 school year those numbers were 77 percent and 59 percent respectively, meaning the gap between the richest and poorest students—roughly 25 percent—was the same.  The statistics related to students learning in Hebrew-speaking public schools.

The study also found that students from single-parent households were eight percent less likely to pass their Bagrut examinations than were students from two-parent households.