The Israeli education system
2.5. Female students – A deprived majority?
In 1999/2000 Jews were 90.4% of first degree students and Arabs – 9.6%, just half of their presentation in the population (http://www.cbs.gov.il.shnaton53, table 8.35). In the year 1998 only 7% of B.A. students were Arabs; they consisted of only 3% of M.A. students and 3.5% of Ph.D. students (ibid, table 22.34). A slight increase in the percentage of Arab student has occurred in 1999: they reached 9.3%; in the year 2000 they were already 9.8% of all students learning for the first academic degree (Shachar & Yosifun, 21.10.2001). However, there has been no substantial increase in the percentage of students learning in one of the 6 Israeli universities, the Technion – Israeli Institute for higher education in technology, and the Weitzman Institute of Science. The most profound increase has been in the number of students learning in colleges in general and in teachers colleges in particular (ibid).
2.4.7. Rates of university degrees recipients
In the year 1999 only 5.7% of recipients of the total 16,235 BA/BSc university degrees were Arabs (Statistics, Israel, 2002b, table 8.38). In the second-degree level the gaps were much higher: only 2.6% of MA/MSc recipients were Arabs (ibid). This number reflects a backlash since 1985, when Arabs were 2.9% of recipients of advanced degrees (ibid). It should be noted that the percentage of Arabs holding graduate degrees in two of the most prestigious subjects – medicine and math and natural sciences – is much higher: 6% and 3.8% respectively (ibid).
In Summa: The average educational level in the Arabic sector is one of the main political, social, and financial problems that the state of Israel has to solve.
attributions (Amit & Movshovitz-Hadar, 1989), and to the general sexism still existing in the Israeli school, as a reflection of the situation in the society in general (Ben Tsvi-Mayer, 1991; Shachar, 1994). Intervention programs have been applied to reduce the level of sexism (e.g. Avrahami-Einat, 1989; Shamai, 1995). Alas, no program has yet been operating in Israel aimed both for the educational-psychological-sociological as well as professional aims: equity in opportunities, resulting in fair prospects for each pupil, without class, gender, or religion differences.
As known from the literature, until the age of 12 girls achieve at least as well as boys in all subjects, including mathematics. At the age of 12, because of social-cultural pressures, girls, especially the more talented ones, start to underachieve in mathematics (e.g. Arnot, Gray, James, Rudduck, & Duveen, 1998; Bailey, 1996;
Boaler, 1997; Campbell, & Sanders, 1997; Lundenberg, 1997; Wilgosh, 1998;
Zorman & David, 2000). As a result, the percentage of girls studying enough mathematics to enable their further education in a prestigious profession is smaller than that of boys (Ayalon & Yogev, 1996; Zorman & David, 2000a). Mathematical underachievement among girls has a high positive correlation with the level of talent or giftedness as well as with age (Benbow, 1988; David, 1997, 1998, 1999b;
Feldhusen & Willard-Holt, 1993).
2.5.1. Participation and dropout in the different educational levels 2.5.1.1. Participation
Until grade 12 boys are the majority of students in all grades in the Jewish education system (http://www.cbs.gov.il/shnaton53). In the school year 2001/2 there were 176,534 boys and only 171,534 girls in grades 9-12 (ibid, table 8.19).
2.5.1.2. Dropout
Females have an advantage over males regarding dropout both in the general in the state-religious sector. Between 2000 and 2001 the dropout rates were 7.1% for males and 3.4% for females 9th graders, 7.2% males and 3.8% females in grade 10, 8.6% of males and 4.8% females 11th graders, and 2% males and 1.2% females for 12th graders (Statistics, Israel, 2002b, table 8.19).
2.5.2. Matriculation success rates 2.5.2.1. Matriculation entitlement
In 2001 27,976 boys and 32,458 girls took the matriculation exams on the Jewish sector; 17,279 boys and 22,388 girls were entitled to the matriculation certificate (Statistics, Israel, 2001b, table 8.20). The advantage of girls over boys has been obvious in three levels: 1. Only 37,012 boys in comparison to 39,137 girls attended grade 12; 2. Only 75.6% of boys in comparison to 82.9% of 12th grade girls were examined in the matriculation exams; 3. The success rate of boys was only 46.7% and that of girls – 57.2% (ibid).
2.5.2.2. Success rate in specific subjects and achievements
In 2000/1 girls received better grades in all subjects in all sectors (Travelsi-Hadad, 1.6.2002). In addition, a higher percentage of girls than boys excelled in the matriculation exams in all subjects, including mathematics, physics, and computer sciences (Statistics, Israel, 2000). For example: in 1998 41% of the females excelled in the 3-points level math exams in comparison to only 31% of the males; in the 4-points level 52% of the females in comparison to 42% of the males excelled, and in the 5-points level 55% of the females excelled in comparison to only 52% of the boys (Mevarech, 2000) This data demonstrates the main female problem in high school mathematics: many girls who could have taken high level mathematic courses prefer learning in a lower level class/group, and the way towards high prestigious, highly paid, and more interesting future occupations is much harder if not altogether blocked.
Of the 28 examinations subjects – compulsory and optional – the success rate of girls was higher than that of boys in 27, including all compulsory as well as scientific subjects (http://www.cbs.gov.il.shnaton53, table 8.22).
2.5.2.3. Participation rates in high-level math
In 2000 43% of 12th graders that were entitled to a matriculation certificate who were successful in the 5-point math exam were girls both in the secular and the religious education. In the Arab education this percentage was 47 (Statistics, Israel, 2001a).
2.5.3. Israeli girls – Achievements in international studies of math and science
Though females’ achievements in the matriculation exams were higher than these of males’ (Mevarech, 2000), the male mean achievement was 569 while the female
mean achievement was only 546 in the TIMSS 1995 international research (Mullis et al., February 1998, table D.2).
In 1995 only about 25% of Israelis holding of matriculation certificates that studied physics and computer science were girls (ibid, table D.2). The percentage of females among students learning physics at the final year of secondary school was 22 (ibid.). In spite of the fact that girls’ achievement at the matriculation physics exam was higher than that of boys’, the mean achievement of males was 513 points and that of females only 482 in the 1995 TIMSS study (ibid).
2.5.4. Girls and the psychometric exams
Until the 2001/2 academic-year there was in Israel an equal value to the matriculation grades and to the psychometric results regarding acceptance to higher education. The gender gap in the mathematical part of the psychometrics, which counts for a third of the final grade (the other two parts are verbal abilities and English knowledge), has been about a half deviation standard for more than 20 years. At the +750 level there have been four times more boys than girls (Suessapel, 1997). As a result many girls were denied access to scientific and technological professions. This situation resembles the one in other counties (e.g. Arnot, Gray, James, Rudduck, & Duveen, 1998; Gallagher, De-Lisi, Holst, McGillicuddy-De-Lisi, Morely, & Callahan, 2000).
2.5.5. Acceptance to universities: Rejection rates
In Israel a high percentage of university candidates are rejected, and many more do not apply to certain department knowing they do not meet the minimal demands. For example: in the year 1997 only 63.5% of those applied started their academic studies in the institute they had applied to (Statistics, Israel, 1997, table 22.31). In 1999 rejection rate of university candidates was somewhat higher among males than among females: 23.1% of men and only 20.3% of women applying to first year studies of first degree were rejected (Statistics, Israel, 2002b, table 8.36).
However, most potential candidates whose average in the matriculation certificate and in the psychometric exams is lower than the minimum required for acceptance to a certain department do not apply. As the vast majority of female candidates apply for the humanities and social sciences departments, female participation in high status scientific subjects is low. An example that will
demonstrate this situation is a numerical comparison between female undergraduate candidates and those accepted to the Technion – the Israeli Institute of Technology – in the year 2000 (Alterman, 2000, table 9). While in the more “female” areas, like biology and architecture the percentage of women accepted was similar to that of female candidates (e.g. in biology and medical science) or even exceeded it (in architecture); in the more “masculine” areas, like mathematics, mathematics and physics, civil engineering, and agricultural engineering, the percentage of females accepted was substantially lower than that of female candidates (ibid).
2.5.6. Higher education
In the year 2000/1 11.1% of the 20-29 year old females and only 7.7% of males studied in an Israeli university (http://www.cbs.gov.il.shnaton53, table 8.12). In addition, 5.2% of this female age group and 3.6% of males belonging to it studied in non-university higher education institutions (http://www.cbs.gov.il.shnaton53, table 8.13).
2.5.6.1. Females in the universities
Of the 1991/2-cohort year, the percent of those who began university studies within 6 years of finishing high school, namely, until the 1997/8 academic year was 30.1 among males and 38.7 among females. In the academic year 2000/1 females consisted of 57% percent of Israeli students (http://www.cbs.gov.il.shnaton53, table 8.33).
Among first-degree students they were 56.5%; among masters student – 58.1% and among doctoral students – 52.1% (http://www.cbs.gov.il.shnaton53, table 8.35).
In the humanities women were the vast majority in all degrees: 72.1% of the total student population; 71.8% of first-degree students; 74.9% of second-degree students, and 61.8% of doctoral students. In social sciences 60.9% of the total student population were women, in the BA stage – 59.0%, among masters students – 58.1%, and among Ph.D. students – 58.1%. In natural sciences and mathematics – 42.9% of BSc students, 46.5% of MSc students, and 45.9% of PhD students. In medicine:
50.2% of first-degree students, 47.7% of masters’ students, and 64.4% of third degree students. In engineering and architecture: 24.9% of BSc students, 23.2% of masters’
students, and 26.6% of doctoral students (ibid, ibid).
2.5.6.2. Females in non-university institutions
While in the year 1990 only 197 students received degrees from institutions of higher education which were not one of the 6 Israeli universities or the Weizmann Institute, that number grew to 11,477 in the year 2000/1 (http://www.cbs.gov.il.shnaton53, table 8.47), 4,697 in teaching (ibid, ibid). In the Jewish sector the opportunity to get non-university higher education has been chosen mainly either by well-off young men and women, who were not accepted to a high prestige department at an Israeli university and were willing to pay three to five times higher tuition in order to become a lawyer or an accountant, or by girls from the periphery, mostly whose origin was Asian-African (e.g. Klein, 15.3.2002).
2.6. Summary
The Israeli education system consists of many different groups, each as its special characteristics. The process of enlarging or narrowing the circle of those who are successful in its different stages depends on many psychological, social, educational, and familial reasons. However, the way to success in all scientific as well as in other paths goes through the mathematics filter. Therefore an accurate situation of the situation regarding mathematics is offered in the next chapters.
Chapter 3: