Over the last several years, the Education Ministry has invested increasing resources toward attracting high quality personnel. For university graduates with outstanding grades, special training programs have been offered, such as programs for high achievers, and expedited career retraining programs for university graduates. These carry a host of benefits, scholarships and, ultimately, preferential working conditions.
But despite the growing demand for such programs, over the past decade or so a substantial share of graduates have actually ended up dropping out of the education system altogether, reminding us that it is not just important how we attract outstanding prospects to the education system, but also how we retain them.
From a nationwide study that I conducted over integrating high achievers into teacher-training programs as opposed to "regular" candidates, we found that, as in many other countries, about 40 percent dropped out of the profession within six to eight years. This includes university graduates from both tracks, the high achievers and the regular track. Even more interesting were the reasons for dropping out. Graduates of the high-achiever programs said the main reasons were low wages, constraints within the education system and work conditions within specific schools (everything that occurs outside the classroom). Working with the pupils themselves was actually one of their highlights. In comparison, regular graduates mainly "blamed" work with pupils for their decision to leave the education system.
One possible explanation for these findings, in my opinion, is linked to the motivations that drive graduates to go into teaching. Graduates of the high achiever programs had many options, but they chose teaching out of a sense of mission or a desire to give back. Communicating with students, therefore, became a professional highlight. Everything that happened outside and around the classroom, however, ended up undermining or totally destroying their feelings of dedication.
This included working with the Education Ministry or school administrations, the lack of autonomy, the bureaucratic overload and the lack of faith in them and their professionalism. All of these factors cast a pall over university graduates' integration into the education system and their satisfaction levels. In contrast, graduates from regular track entered education for a variety of reasons. A significant portion viewed teaching as one step in their careers. For this reason it was teaching itself, the pupils, and what happens inside the classroom that made the occupation difficult.
The Education Ministry must realize that quality personnel -- which it has worked so hard to attract -- will only remain in the profession if strenuous efforts are made to absorb teachers professionally and empower them in schools. It's unbelievable that new teachers are forced to contend with the most "disruptive" classes just because no other teacher is willing to accept the challenge. It's unthinkable that, in their first year, new teachers are forced to prepare classes for matriculation exams. Even the most ideologically motivated, quality teachers may fail to rise to such tasks in their first year. We must turn every teacher into an autonomous professional with the ability to make decisions. As things stand, teachers feel that they are not trusted and constantly being monitored. And they feel they must justify every step they take, are under constant scrutiny, required to provide an account for every step they take and write endless reports. This, of course, impairs their sense of motivation and job satisfaction.
Professor Tzipi Liebman is the president of Kibbutzim College.
