Cultivating Excellence in the Study of Science in Religious Schools
Within its research on the standards of public religious schools, Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah at times finds lacunae and imperfections that it can work to fill. Most noticeably, the standards of such schools seem to have fallen in the sciences; a recent study demonstrated that such graduates had considerably lower achievements on the standardized psychometric test (see here for more details). This trend hampers students’ acceptance to high-level university programs and, in turn, their ability to contribute to the workforce as they might like.
Since 2014, Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah has been lobbying, bringing the question to public forums, establishing steering committees, and researching this topic in further depth. These have clearly created change in the Religious Zionist community; a new focus on the sciences has been in evidence—in the public discourse, in the rabbinic leadership, and in the Ministry of Education. We continue to conduct research and lobby appropriate authorities to ensure that this trend improves.
Indeed, according to new studies conducted by the movement in the years 2017-2020, a clear trend of improvement in the state of science studies in the religious society can be seen.
We are happy to be the factor that led and pushed for this improvement.
