Education Minister Yoav Kisch Accused of Systematically Concealing Failing Exam Results

A highly critical document submitted by Gal Alon, Director General of the National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation in Education (RAMA), to Professor Ami Moyal, Chairman of the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education, accuses Minister of Education Yoav Kisch of systematically distorting and concealing the failing achievements of Israel's education system.

According to the document, Kisch ordered the cancellation of a national exam on 21st-century skills, banned surveys on the state of the education system and evacuees during the October 7 war, and attempted to manipulate the results of international PISA and TIMSS exams. The confrontation escalated as RAMA insisted on publishing the failures of Israeli students in national and international tests, prompting Kisch to attempt to dismiss Gal Alon and establish an internal ministry unit to measure its own achievements.

Suppression of the 21st-Century Skills Exam

The document reveals that Kisch ordered the shelving of a national exam on 21st-century skills (critical thinking, creative thinking, digital literacy, and information literacy). The exam, scheduled for January 2026, was canceled after two years of development and an investment of 4 million NIS. This groundbreaking exam was designed to test advanced skills considered central to modern education systems.

In August 2025, the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Education, Odette Sela, sought to intervene in RAMA's professional work by writing a scientific opinion on the exam. Gal Alon wrote to the Ministry's Director General, Meir Shimoni:

"You cannot interfere in how we evaluate results... I do not recall since when the Ministry's Chief Scientist approves RAMA's exams."

The following day, Kisch announced the cancellation of the exam.

Blocking Wartime Surveys and Hiding Science Failures

According to Alon, Kisch also blocked a vital RAMA initiative at the start of the war to conduct bi-weekly surveys among students, parents, and teachers to track their well-being and provide a data-driven basis for decision-making. Kisch responded to Alon's request by stating:

"I am not sure this is the time for questionnaires. It is sensitive."

Furthermore, Kisch ordered RAMA not to publish the results of the "Tnufa" science exams, in which only 3% of students met the expected standards. Alon detailed several attempts to distort these findings, including Kisch's demand to delete the findings and Meir Shimoni's suggestion to merge two categories to falsely claim they reflected meeting the requirements. Recently, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara ruled that Kisch lacked the authority to block the publication, ordering the results to be released at the end of the month.

Manipulation of International Exams

Alon also exposed suspicions that Kisch and Shimoni directed 900,000 NIS from "Iron Swords" rehabilitation funds to targeted preparation for 110 schools ahead of the PISA 2025 exam. Such targeted preparation is strictly prohibited by the OECD and could result in a warning.

Additionally, Kisch allegedly altered and distorted the publication of the TIMSS 2023 mathematics and science results for 8th graders, deleting data showing the severity of the decline in achievements and attributing the drop to the pandemic without scientific basis. The Ministry's Innovation Administration, led by Meirav Zarbiv, also initiated moves to allow schools to artificially exclude weaker students from the TIMSS exam by classifying them as "sick" on the day of the test.

Response from the Minister's Office

The Office of the Minister of Education stated in response:

"This is a political and false leak campaign by RAMA, designed to divert attention from an ongoing investigation into its own conduct. The claims that the Minister or the Director General tried to bias international exam results are false and baseless. When RAMA raised concerns, the Minister ordered the actions to be stopped. The allegations were checked by the internal auditor and found to be baseless. These slurs appeared only after an external review of RAMA by Prof. Ami Moyal was launched."