The Seker
Chapter 2
Israeli Historical Fragments
A Bit of History
The Seker exam began in 1955. At that time, a committee at the Ministry of Education convened to discuss the question: who was eligible for a scholarship (stipend) for high school education. Criteria were set for students from low-income families, and criteria for full or partial payment by parents based on their monthly income. The main criterion established after lengthy discussions was: a nationwide exam to test the achievements of deserving students.
The exams were launched. A team of teachers prepared the basic format. Study areas were selected, questions were developed, and a preliminary survey was conducted in which randomly selected children were tested for experimental purposes.
After the initial Seker exams, lessons were learned. Subsequently, each year, a professional committee convened to examine the method and appropriate format – questions and content were added and removed, the way scores were determined was changed, and conditions for examinees were either made stricter or more lenient.
Measurements conducted by the Ministry of Education showed that between 40 to 50 percent of Israeli children received a "pass" grade. The low number of successful examinees and the demographic composition of those who passed sparked criticism and remained a public debate throughout the exam's existence.
Despite criticism of the method and format, the Seker continued to be held and served as a decisive factor in subsidizing high school education for Israeli students. It wasn't the only factor – the final grades from 8th-grade report cards also played a role, but without the "pass" document, a primary school graduate's chances of getting into academic high school were low, almost zero. In fact, the Seker determined the future of the students who participated in it and how they would integrate into society.
Towards the late 1960s, the exam's end was approaching. The government decided to shake up the education system and initiated a comprehensive reform that encompassed and completely transformed the entire system. The old high school format was abolished, junior high schools were added, criteria for student admission changed, and academic tracks in high schools expanded. The reform brought about integration intended to reduce educational disparities among population groups, making the Seker unnecessary and irrelevant.
In 1972, the "Seker exam" was abolished. It was removed from the public agenda and absorbed into the sea of major changes brought by the reform, but it left its mark and influenced an entire generation of children who grew up in Israel during its early decades. These children, numbering over half a million, grew up, started families, and constituted the central backbone of the country's population for many years.
How It Worked?
At the beginning of each school year, on a date determined anew annually – between September and November – 8th-grade students reported for Seker day. On the morning of that day, carefully guarded boxes containing the exams, printed by the Government Printer under strict secrecy, were delivered to all schools across the country.
The first Seker exams took place at the end of the school day. In the 1960s, they were moved up to 11:00 AM. Until exam time, 1st to 7th-grade students were sent home, so as not to disturb. The 8th-grade students, excited and tense examinees, arrived at their pre-prepared classrooms, sat at individual desks, and received the exam booklet with questions printed on white pages. They also received a graph paper sheet for doodling, drafting, and attempting to solve arithmetic problems (in those days, there were no pocket calculators, and students solved arithmetic problems with the aid of the printed multiplication table, which they had memorized).
The Seker was conducted in what was then called an "American format" – each question had four possible answers, and the student was required to circle the correct one. Over time, "open questions" were added, with blank lines for filling in and writing the answer. The number of questions in the first exams was 120, plus 18 "research questions" for educational professionals at the Ministry of Education. Gradually, the number of questions decreased to 70.
The questions were drawn from elementary school subjects – Hebrew language, history, Bible, arithmetic, science, and geography. There were years when English questions were also included. Religious schools also received questions on religious life. Over the years, the nature of the questions changed from factual knowledge questions to comprehension and general intelligence questions.
The Seker lasted 100 minutes (which were extended or shortened over the years). At the end of the allotted time, the exam papers were submitted to the teachers, who transferred them to the Ministry of Education, where they were checked and returned to the schools – to ensure results were received before high school registration began.
A page from the survey test 5744 - 1963/64
The Essay Seker
In the 1960s, an essay exam was also added as part of the Seker exam. The essay was held on a separate day from the main Seker exam. On "Seker Essay" day, students arrived at school early and eagerly awaited the radio broadcasts. A few minutes before 8:00 AM, the essay topics were broadcast on Reshet Bet ("The Light Wave"), and handed to them in the exam classrooms. They had fifty minutes to write an essay on one of three different topics. For example, in 1966, the topics were:
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King Solomon – his traits and deeds.
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My favorite radio program – describe and explain.
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A heroic act by a boy or girl.
Who Passed and Who Failed
The Ministry of Education determined who passed and who didn't, without providing students with any detailed score. The exam results accounted for fifty percent of the total score (40% from the regular exam, 10% from the essay exam). The remaining fifty percent was determined by the assessment of teachers and schools, assessments that were sent along with the exams and factored into the final score. Over the years, more complex mathematical methods were established that combined the student's average scores from 7th and 8th grades with the exam scores and teacher assessments.
Thus, even someone who failed the exam could receive a "pass" grade if the teachers' assessment raised their score to positive. There were also appeals committees that allowed students to appeal their score and receive a passing grade even if their overall score wasn't sufficient. In addition to all these, a student could retake the exam once more in 9th or 10th grade, and if successful, received an exemption from tuition for 11th and 12th grades.
The Seker added (or detracted from) the prestige and reputation of schools, and therefore, principals had a clear interest in submitting appeals, and thousands were submitted annually throughout the years. Appellants weren't satisfied with just score weighting and assessment, and added "personal circumstances" arguments, such as: orphanhood, illness, disability, and even personal motivation of students who significantly improved their scores in 7th and 8th grades. Such arguments also contributed to the acceptance of the appeal.
This is the message the student's parents received
Who Failed?
Only about half of the students who participated in the Seker exam received the coveted approval: pass. At the top of the list of those who failed and had no chance of passing were all those who suffered from learning disabilities. It's important to remember that in those years, dyslexia and attention disorders were not addressed, and those who suffered from them found it difficult to cope with the complex exam.
Those for whom studies "weren't their thing" also failed – simply lazy students who didn't study well, the disorganized ("the unruly") who preferred playing football or going to the beach instead of studying systematically for years.
The largest group of failures, throughout the Seker's existence, were children of Mizrahi communities, sons and daughters of immigrant families from Asia and North Africa. More Ashkenazim (from families who immigrated from Europe and America) managed to pass the Seker exam, at least in the early years of the exam. The Seker exams reflected the curriculum taught in schools at that time. This material was more suited to the mentality of families who came from Europe and America (Western countries) or were born to such parents. Children of Mizrahi communities, who came from culturally different backgrounds – did not quickly adapt to the nature of studies, the language, or the educational values. They also suffered from troubling absorption difficulties and overall discrimination in all aspects of their lives. All these affected their achievements and their ability to cope with the Seker. In the Seker's final years, children who were born or grew up here, spoke fluent Hebrew, connected to the Israeli mentality, and even if they were children of Mizrahi parents – their chances of success increased.
Barriers
Despite the secrecy surrounding the Seker's preparation and results, it seems that no fixed threshold for a final score was set for students to pass. Nevertheless, it was claimed against the Ministry of Education that the passing score changed from year to year, and each year a different score was set as the passing barrier, according to the system's considerations, such as: the number of available places in academic high schools.
