Dear Etniers I need enlightenment. How does a pupil move from a lower stream to a higher one? What are the procedures involved ? What is the pass mark he has to achieve. Can he do this in the middle of the school year? I know how quickly it is possible to be put down a Hakbatsa but I have found it difficult to get information on how it works the other way. Why wait till grade four to stream kids? Any experienced teacher in Grade 1 can tell within the first six months which of her pupils are brilliant and which of them are going to struggle throughout their schooling. Why wait till grade 4, junior high or year 11 and 12? It would bemcu more efficient to introduce streaming in the first class. The teacher who walks into a lower stream classroom unwittingly conveys the message of the low expectations he has of the pupils in front of him. The pupils will not disappoint their teacher, they will achieve very little. Why should a pupil invest more time and effort in his studies, or even take private lessons when the chance of him being able to go to a higher stream, border on the non existent. We do a terrible in justice to our pupils, we hurt them deeply and make them feel like second class citizens. I have never seen a teacher delighted to get a Hakbasa B class or a group of non readers., but they sure have a huge smile on their faces when they get a 5 point Bagrut class. Why do the new teachers at a school get palmed off with a Hakbsa C class, You will hardly ever see a veteran teacher get this group of children? Is it possible because the pecking order in the teachers room is based on what Hakbsa you teach? I have come across a maths teacher who had 15 pupils in her 4point streamed maths class who complained that she couldn't handle the diversity in her classroom and warned the pupils she would not stop to explain if they couldn't keep up. Lo and behold at the beginning of the following year she gave these 15 pupils an exam and then she was down to 12 pupils in her streamed 4points. How did she get away with this? There aren't all that many maths teachers ar ound. It saddens me to see that there are so few teachers out there who think the pupils might benefit in learning in a heterogeneous environment. Why not keep the door of opportunity open as long as possible, encouraging the slower developer, not writing him off as below par before he has even got a start in life It is certainly easier to TEACH in a homogenous group. I have taught in heterogeneous classes with 42 pupils in the class. And the results were no worse than in homogeneous classes. In fact in the District Standard tests they were better. In my capacity as a remedial English teacher I have often taught pupils who come to me in Grade 7 not knowing the alphabet but eventually doing 5 point Bagrut. Obviously the school they attended had streaming only from 11th grade We should be fighting for smaller classes and a more teachable curriculum instead of palming off all our problems by asking for streaming. Dare I sign my name? Tova T. ----------------------------------------------- ** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org or - http://www.etni.org.il ** ** for help - ask@xxxxxxxx ** ** to post to this list - etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** -----------------------------------------------