Six Knesset Members have submitted legislation to ban universities from requiring a psychometric test as a condition for acceptance for study.
The Psychometric test is a tool for predicting academic performance, and contains multiple-choice questions in three areas: verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning and English language proficiency. Universities in Israel require prospective students to pass the Psychometric, which is administered by the National Institute for Testing and Evaluation - a body that was established by the universities.
The universities generally accept American SAT scores in lieu of the Pyschometric exam.
The sponsors of the legislation that would do away with this test explain, "The Psychometric test is, for many people who wish to study in institutions of higher studies, a genuine obstacle and sometimes even a barrier for a higher education." They say that would-be students from weaker socio-economic classes do not do as well as their upper-class counterparts on the exam.
The sponsoring MKs suggest that either high school matriculation exams or other tests be used to determine a candidate's suitability for college studies.
A spokesperson for MK Moshe Kachlon (Likud), one of the new bill's sponsors, told Arutz-7, "The bill itself does not mention the words 'Psychometric Exam,' as we were informed that this would not be legally acceptable. Instead, we are talking about the nullification of the entrance exam in general, and its possible replacement with more specific exams for each department. For instance, a prospective biology student would be tested in areas related to biology, etc."
Kachlon's aide added that because the bill is supported by members of many different parties, she has reason to hope it will pass. It is co-sponsored not only by Knesset Education Committee Chairman Michael Melchior (Labor), but also by MKs Eli Aflalo of Kadima, Yaakov Margi of Shas, Eitan Cabel of Labor, and Stas Misezhnikov (Yisrael Beiteinu).
The test itself costs 395 shekels ($110), but candidates generally spend many hundreds or thousands of shekels more for courses - sometimes as long as a year - to help them pass the test.
Landver's Bill
MK Sopha Landver (Yisrael Beiteinu) submitted similar legislation, which was rejected by the government's ministerial committee for legislation. Landver's spokesperson explained to Arutz-7 that this means that the government will not support the bill, but "Landver plans to submit the bill in any event."
Previous similar bills have been submitted in the past by former Education Minister Yossi Sarid, MK Ahmed Tibi, and others, but have been rejected by the Knesset.
Supporters of the Exam
Supporters of the psychometric exam say that relying on high school matriculation exams (Bagrut) is not a better system, and that it does not give students who may not have worked hard in high school a chance to redeem themselves.
Guy Shadmi, spokesman for Kaplan-Kidum, Israel's largest provider of courses for such exams, explained to Arutz-7 why the test is important: "The Committee of University Heads in Israel has found, based on hundreds of studies over the past decades, that using only Bagrut scores alone has only a 0.37 index of predicting success in university studies - while using the Bagrut together with the Psychometric exam increases this index to 0.55. Just like the United States has SAT, GMAT and GRE tests for college and graduate studies, Israeli universities employ the Psychometric exam for the same purpose - one test that is taken by everyone."
Shadmi noted that the Psychometric was once previously done away with, but was restored under the term of Education Minister Limor Livnat in the early 2000's.