[etni] Re: The modular unseen

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Dear Liora:

Have no illusions: those writing the exams know perfectly well what they 
are doing. They've been properly instructed, and they are rendering the 
best services possible for the money they get.

The point of the latest changes in the Bagrut testing, the way I see it, 
is to ensure more pupils pass the test, no matter what they know. If the 
scheme (scam?) indeed succeeds, the Ministry will report "a considerable 
improvement" without having to invest money nor effort in maintaining 
(or, G-d forbid, raising!) the real knowledge standards.

The whole set - bending the assessment; letting the pupils cheat during 
the exam; getting rid of the more experienced teachers; giving more 
power to the corrupt and incompetent principals and district heads; 
locking the teachers in school till 4pm; desroying the in-service system 
based on incentives and replacing it with one based on threats of 
getting fired - looks like some Robert Ludlum "world conspiracy" 
thriller. Unfortunately, it is quite real.

There's no crime people won't perpetrate given a proper amount of power 
and money  as an incentive. Herostratos would blush, dwarfed by the 
current atrocity.

No wonder parents in development towns do their best to send their kids 
to boarding schools closer to the center of the country, and those in 
the center who can afford it send their children to study in 
universities in Europe and the US. If this horrendous plan finds its way 
to the system (and with the non-functional unions and indifferent/scared 
teachers, I can see no force that would prevent this disaster from 
happening), in less than ten years we'll witness the total destruction 
of public education in Israel. We have been witnessing it for some time 
already. Take a look at the old bagrut exams and compare them with the 
ones given today. It's like Charles Dickens vs Tom Clancy.

Go thoroughly through the list of changes proposed by the Dovrat gang. 
There must be something about a compulsory lobotomy for new teachers: 
critical thinking is incompatible with the system they are planning to 
install.

Yours -

Lev

ask@xxxxxxxx wrote:

>---snip---
>I do hope that these comments are taken into account next time an exam
>is written.
>---snip---
>  
>



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