The Haredi yeshivas (religious schools of the ultra-Orthodox Jews) adhere to a separate schedule run by the Hebrew calendar, commencing on 1 Elul.

[dubious – discuss] The Israeli education is lauded for its high academic standards, particularly in science and technology, and for its role in driving the nation's economic growth.

[dubious – discuss] However, there are concerns about disparities in resource allocation between Jewish and Arab schools, and the low participation rate of Haredi students in mainstream education and the workforce.

Additionally, recurring strikes by teachers and students over budget cuts and wages, represent ongoing challenges within the system.

[8] The Haredim's lack of mainstream education and consequent low participation in the workforce are regarded by many in Israel as a social problem.

[9] The Ministry of Education's statistics from 2014 show that only about 22% of Haredi students take matriculation exams, since Orthodox yeshivot mostly ignore core subjects.

Miriam Ben-Peretz, professor emeritus of education at the University of Haifa and winner of the 2006 Israel Prize, notes: "More and more Israeli students don't have any foundation of knowledge, any basics — not in math, not in English, not in general...things have to change.

[14] For millennia medieval European antisemitism often forbade the Jews from owning land and farming, which limited their career choices for making a decent living.

This forced many Jews to place a much higher premium on education allowing them to seek alternative career options that involved entrepreneurial and white-collar professional pursuits such as merchant trading, science, medicine, law, accountancy, and moneylending as these professions required higher levels of verbal, mathematical, and scientific literacy.

[16] With contemporary Jewish culture's strong emphasis, promotion of scholarship and learning and the strong propensity to promote cultivation of intellectual pursuits as well as the nation's high university educational attainment rate exemplifies how highly Israeli society values higher education.

[23] Much of the Israeli Jewish population seek education as a passport to a decent white collar professional job and a middle class paycheck in the country's competitive high-tech economy.

Striving for high academic achievement and educational success is stressed in many modern Jewish Israeli households as parents make sure that their children are well educated adequately in order to gain the necessary technological skills needed for employment success to compete in Israel's modern high-tech job market.

Israelis see competency with in demand job skills such as literacy in math and science as especially necessary for employment success in Israel's competitive 21st-century high-tech economy.

[23] Israel's Jewish population maintains a relatively high level of educational attainment where just under half of all Israeli Jews (46%) hold post-secondary degrees.

[24][25] Israeli Jews (among those ages 25 and older) have average of 11.6 years of schooling making them one of the most highly educated of all major religious groups in the world.

[30] As the Israeli economy is largely scientific and technological based, the labor market demands people who have achieved some form of higher education, particularly related to science and engineering in order to gain a competitive edge when searching for employment.

[31][32] The Israeli education system has been praised for major role in spurring Israel's economic development and technological boom.

Those who study in a university at this stage generally do so under a program called atuda, where part of the tuition for their bachelor's degree is paid for by the army.

All of Israel's nine public universities (and some of their colleges) are subsidized by the government, and students pay only a small part of the actual cost of tuition.

In the latest PISA exams, in which half a million students from 65 countries participated, Israel ranked 33 in reading achievement and 40th in mathematics and science.

[59] According to a 2016 study by the Pew Research Center, 33% of Jews have a college degree (ranging from 13% for Haredi to 45% for Hiloni), compared to 18% for Christians.

According to a ministry official, "At the end of the process, a lot of money will be directed toward schools with students from families with low education and income levels, mainly in the Arab sector.

"[64] The Education Ministry prepared a five-year plan to close the gaps and raise the number of students eligible for high school matriculation.

[65] A 2009 report showed that obstacles to Arab students participating in higher education resulted in over 5,000 moving to study in nearby Jordan.

The program relates holistically to the many stages involved in succeeding in higher education: from providing information and guidance in grades 11 and 12, to offering pre-academic preparatory courses, to financial support while studying, to assistance in transitioning to the labor market.

The recommendations included a reform giving school principals the right to fire teachers of poor quality, and reward better ones with higher pay.

[79] According to a paper by Nurit Peled-Elhanan, a professor of language and education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, textbooks in Israel promote a negative image of Arabs.

Dr. George Mansour, who examined the history textbooks, said they ignored the presence of Arab-Palestinians in Israel and minimized Arab culture.

The 2007 Israeli student strike started in April 2007 in protest at the government decision to increase tuition fees[83] and the failure to implement the 2001 Winograd Committee recommendation that they be reduced by 25%.

Their demands included an 8.5% pay raise, reducing class sizes to a maximum of 30 students, and increasing the length of the school day.