[etni] Re: our comments on NBA


19.6.2005

Dear Etniers,

We, the English staff of Ben Gurion high school in Emek Hefer, would like to voice our opinion regarding the new Bagrut format at the end of the first year of its implementation.

1. First of all, we welcome the raise in the level of the exam in terms of writing and global comprehension skills, which will eventually lead to a better competence in these skills.

2. However, as far as the content of the exam is concerned, we feel that the exam is repetitive in the skills tested (an unseen in each module - although each unseen is of a different level of difficulty - and 2 compositions in F and G). Our feeling is that one module or part of one should include linguistic items. This should enhance students? linguistic awareness leading eventually to better language accuracy. It may also make students' learning more structured, and give them a gradual feeling of advancement.
Moreover, literary appreciation of some kind should be included, especially since teaching it is required by the English Inspectorate (which informed teachers at ?hishtalmuiot? that it would be included in the new exam.
3. The number of final school marks that teachers have to give each student is 4 (between 120-160 marks per class) and this is terribly frustrating and time consuming. This leads to additional, unnecessary friction as students find it difficult to understand the differences between all the marks. Furthermore, the school marks include elements (homework, literature, book assignments and elements of school policy) which are frequently the reason for gaps between school marks and the exam marks (which assess ?pure? knowledge). Needless to say, that we teachers repeatedly have to account for this before students, their parents and school administration. Therefore, an Inspectorate clarification letter to school administration is really needed. To conclude this point, we want to draw your attention to the fact that an extra load of work is put on English teachers, mainly from an administrative and accounting aspect, which is in no way financially rewarded and which we fear may in the long run come at the expense of the pedagogical aspect.

4. We would like to draw people?s attention to the distortion of proportions in the marks of the students who take the exam orally in modules B, D, F, G: the written assignment keeps its 30 -40 points, whereas the reading and comprehension questions' total possible score is reduced. This changes the overall proportion of the reading, comprehension and writing skills, which becomes different for these students.

5. This modular system is an extra financial expense on the part of the Ministry of Education, a waste of tax payers? money, which does not bring an additional educational improvement, and we regret it. The same point should be made about Moed Bet.

6. The ever-growing number of LD students who require special test dispensations in our school is higher than the accepted percentage in Israel. This creates an additional workload for us and and a disservice for some of the students in the long run.

Your comments are really appreciated.

Yours,

Ben Gurion high school English staff

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