Education in Israel

Education in Israel is high quality and designed to fit economic needs and future growth. There are a lot of IT and engineering start-ups that collaborate with the universities here.

Primary and secondary education

The Israeli education system is divided into several levels:

• preschool education (gan hova) from 2 to 6 years old. It is fee attendance is compulsory from the age of five. There are also private nurseries and kindergartens with fees from $150 to $400 per month.
• primary and secondary school from 6 to 18 years old. It is free and compulsory. Israel has public, religious public, Arab and Druze schools, as well as private institutes.
  • primary school (beit sefer yesodi) from 6 to 12 years old.
  • middle school (hativat beinaim) from 12 to 15 years old.
  • high school (tihon) from 15 to 18 years old.

Upon leaving secondary school, young adults must complete their military service in the Israel Defence Forces or request a deferral during university studies.

• higher education

Universities

The country has nine universities and dozens of colleges under jurisdiction of the Council for Higher Education in Israel. The oldest and the most famous is the Technion. The country's main university cities are Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Beersheba, Haifa and Rehovot.

University in Israel is fee-based, but the prospective students from a number of countries can apply for government scholarships. Knowledge of Hebrew and English is required to study here but there are special language centres (ulpanim) to prepare students for the Hebrew proficiency tests.

Most academic institutions accept the students with the knowledge of Hebrew at the B1 (Gimel) or B2 (Dalet) level. The faculties of Medicine, Psychology and Law require higher language proficiency levels — C1 (Heh) or C2 (Vav). Those wishing to study Medicine and Psychology are interviewed in Hebrew.

Applicants also take a psychometric test assessing their IQ and logical reasoning abilities. The faculties of Engineering have an additional (paid) exam in Mathematics and Physics — for the exact fees, consult the admissions office.