A Letter To The Editor

10th Urim St'
Holon, Israel
85664
September 8th, 2013 

The Editor
Haarez'
54th Shenkin St'
Tel Aviv, Israel
55746

Dear Editor,

I was browsing the web when I came across your article, and since I'm a student I was very curious about the title I read. Many, if not all, of the schools in Israel use tests to evaluate their students' academic achievements.

In my opinion, tests aren't  and shouldn't be the way to evaluate the students' achievements. Tests rely on memory and put pressure on the student, so his achievements in the test can't really reflect his full capabilities and control of the knowledge he is tested on. If tests are meant to meassure our effort and knowledge, then how come some students get higher grades without opening a book, while others put their heart in the studies and get lower grades. We are all different individuals, and have different abilities and thinking processes, so why then are we tested by the same means?

In addition, tests have become the only reason students come to school and learn. Some of them don't even show up in school, and just learn from the summarizes the teacher gives them. They memorize it for the tests and then forget it a month later. Is that what intellegence is? Is this what schools were meant for? The students miss the important thing in the whole process: expanding their knowledge and developing a creative mind. Students should want to wake up every morning and go to school, and not only because they have to.

To sum up, tests should be cancelled, in order to make students really want to learn. Look at Finland, I think they did a pretty good job with their education system, that is proved to be the most effective one in the world! There are a lot of other ways to evaluate the students' academic achievements such as projects, make the students lecture etc. As our Finance Minister Yair Lapid (who by the way, didn't finish high school) said, "education isn't about measurement, but about learning. Because knowledge and intellect shouldn't be graded".

Sincerely yours.
Doron Levy.

Excellent letter!

(100)

Daphna.