Bagrut
(Matriculation Certificate)
Bagrut is the most common of the educational certificates in Israel.
It is Matriculation Certificate. The final, concluding summary of the core curriculum in the Israeli education system. It's issued after a long series of exams, and both of them – the exams and the certificate – are called by the short name "Bagrut" in spoken Hebrew (which means: adulthood).
Each of the Bagrut exams in a certain subject is worth a certain number of points, and in total, a minimum number of points must be accumulated to successfully pass the most difficult of all school tasks.
There are "core" subjects in which it is mandatory to pass an exam: mathematics, English, Hebrew language, history, and civics. They are worth a high value, and without them, you cannot receive the final certificate. And there are other subjects, such as Bible, Arabic, literature, and others – these are optional, and they also have a numerical value in the point summary.
The "Bagrut Certificate" is the horizon of high school studies in Israel – for 17-18-year-olds, without distinction of religion, race, or gender; for accepted or rejected students, nerds or sababas (cool kids), snobs or arsim (thugs), geniuses and gifted students, learning disabled and naturally lazy students – everyone is entitled to the certificate if they take the exams and if they meet the accompanying requirements and accumulate the appropriate score.
The Bagrut – is the entry ticket for young Israelis to the mainstream of life. The certificate will determine whether they will be accepted to university, and what kind of career they will have in life, if any at all.
What is the certificate?
A piece of paper or a computer file that tells a huge story in a few short and concise headings, with some numbers from 1 to 100, and each number is the grade they received in each of the Bagrut exams.
An Israeli Bagrut certificate.
All in all, a piece of paper.
Here is a monologue of Israeli parents with a pragmatic worldview:
"The Bagrut exams are the main reason we, the parents, enrolled our daughter or son in the official educational frameworks: elementary school, then middle school, and finally, high school.
And now they are in 12th grade, and it's time to see if it was justified to send them to school every morning and what they have been doing there since the age of six.
They didn't come to the educational institution so that we, the parents, could have a babysitter while we went to work... Right?
We also sent them so they would be good and well-behaved children, and to instill in them proper manners and values... and at the same time, they would also enjoy the atmosphere and all the rich activities offered by the Israeli educational frameworks: an annual class trip, visits to sites that are national icons, such as the Western Wall or Yad Vashem, visits to sites of heroic heritage that connect them to Israeli-ness; and that they would bond with social groups, and follow the 'popular kids' or experience the feeling of being isolated; and that they would feel young love, and experience their first kiss, and meet with their first frustration and first disappointment...
...It's all true.
But in the end... after all... we wanted them to have a Bagrut."
For parents, it's clear.
And the students?
It takes them time to become pragmatic. The insights only come to their consciousness at the crucial moments of the Bagrut exams. That's when they discover that this is the finish line in the race of Israeli students in the state education system – it's not a pop quiz. Not a final exam. Not a graduation exam. Not a final paper. Not a "trial run." Not a tutorial with or without private lessons.
A Bagrut exam is the real deal.
And the exams, oh, the exams.
How do students cope with this formative moment?
They intensify the memorization of the study materials and dedicate especially long nights before the exam date.
When the fateful day arrives – they come to the classroom where the exam is taking place and sit each at a separate table, to prevent cheating. One teacher hands out the exam questionnaire and watches to make sure everything runs properly.
There are students who storm the questionnaire and answer the questions, and there are those who stare at the window and the paper in front of them, at the walls and the ceiling, to remember the correct answer, and to their bad luck, at that exact fateful second – one of them has a blackout. He tries to peek at the table next to him, tries to hint to another examinee in the hope of salvation. There are those who go to the restroom, maybe to calm down or maybe to pull out small slips of paper ("cheat sheets" or "shlifim") with pre-prepared answers... That's how it is for more or less three hours, hours in which the peak moments of their studies will be realized.
At the end of the exam, when they hand it in to the teacher, they will leave the classroom optimistic or pessimistic, depending on how confident they are.
What's for sure: they will remember this experience for the rest of their lives. The study materials they memorized so much—they will remember less. Maybe they will even forget them immediately after the exam, and will never touch them again.
In July, when everything is behind them, and the festive and final graduation party is ahead of them – all that is left for them is to wait a few months until they get the final answer to the fateful question: did they pass the biggest audition of their lives?
Whoever gets a positive answer can breathe a sigh of relief, put the certificate in a drawer in the closet, or save it as a file on the computer. Whoever fails in one or more subjects will get another chance in a second sitting, or will have to supplement their knowledge with an external school, and will take the exam at an older age.
Either way, both of them can look forward and see a large, flashing message in their consciousness, clarifying the true meaning of the Israeli Bagrut :
The gates of youth have closed, and the gate to the big world has opened for them.
Bits of Information about Bagrut in Israel
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Only about half of the residents of Israel, Jews and Arabs, hold a Bagrut Certificate, as of 2023. The other half includes all those who for some reason did not take the exam, or who did not complete high school studies in recognized educational frameworks.
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There is a whole sector in Israel that numbers about a million people, the ultra-Orthodox sector, which has no connection to Bagrut. The leaders of the ultra-Orthodox sector do not see core studies as an important value for life, and in their place, they prefer to educate their students in independent educational systems where they study Jewish holy texts.
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Despite the supreme importance given to the Bagrut Certificate, there are several well-known figures in Israel who did not pass the Bagrut exams. The most prominent among them: Yair Lapid, who heads a large party, served as Minister of Finance, and for a short period was also the Prime Minister of Israel (in 2022). And like him: Yaron London, an esteemed journalist and media personality. The singers Eyal Golan and Noa Kirel, and the basketball player Deni Avdija who focused on his sports career at the expense of regular studies.
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A Matriculation Certificate has a significant role in the process of accepting students to academic institutions, but over the years, universities and colleges in Israel have opened academic tracks also for those who did not complete the Bagrut exams and do not hold the certificate.
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