A few years ago, Hatzor Haglilit’s regional council in the north announced a system-wide revolution which included educational plans, staffing changes, upgrades to infrastructure, increasing budgets, and a general emphasis in all of the municipality’s resources to provide whatever is needed so that students in Hatzor Haglilit would be on par with those in schools in the center of the country.
The plan has worked, and now the school’s bagrut eligibility rate has increased more than 20% in a short four years, growing from 74% to an amazing 95.4%! Additionally, four years ago only 7.5% of the school’s students earned the “Outstanding Student” classification from the Ministry of Education, and at the end of 2020, now 18.5% (more than double) AMIT Hatzor Haglilit students can claim that distinction.
An additional emphasis was placed on students’ taking higher-level bagrut exams, and here too, the numbers speak to the school’s success. In four years the school went from 52% of students taking the 4 and 5 points English bagrut to 71%. For math, the numbers rose from 24.2% to 46%. There were additional notable changes in students studying physics up from 7.2% to 14%, and science from 32% to 40%.
Boaz Yosefi, principal at AMIT Hatzor Haglilit, explains, “There are no secrets in education. Intensive, personal, and individualized work leads to results. We introduced individualized plans for each and every student, the staff have personal connections with the students, and we put an emphasis on the emotional side of each student as well. In addition, we introduced many programs which we individually matched to each student that strengthens their connection to the system and gives them the desire to invest: scuba diving, games, seamanship, climbing, and more. These, together with a staff that is dedicated and committed to the students’ success, and parental participation, led us to these impressive results.”
Shimon Susya, head of the council for Hatzor Haglilit, adds, “The processes we led with the education institutions resulted in this positive trend…We are proud of the amazing increases in all the data, the educational staff deserves appreciation for their extensive work, the students on their tremendous efforts, and the parents for believing in our education system. In addition, we are currently finishing construction on the school buildings at AMIT Honi Hame’agel elementary school, and AMIT Hatzor Haglilit high school, with an investment of more than 20 million shekels (nearly $6.2 million), and we are creating quality and inviting educational environment. Together, we will continue to give our children the best possible options and the best education in [AMIT] Hatzor Haglilit.”
