**** ETNI on the web http://www.etni.org.il http://www.etni.org **** 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--- > > -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.7.1 - Release Date: 19/01/05 ##### To send a message to the ETNI list email: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ##### ##### Send queries and questions to: ask@xxxxxxxx #####