Education System in Israel
Israel has a state-funded education system shaped by the Compulsory Education Law of 1949 and the State Education Law of 1953. The first made schooling compulsory, while the second brought the main Jewish school networks under a national framework with separate secular and religious state streams. Haredi and Arab schools operate alongside them. In 2025/26, Israeli schools served about 2.59 million pupils, including roughly 582,000 in the Haredi sector and 579,000 in the Arab sector. Around 71 percent of young people qualify for the Bagrut matriculation certificate, although the rate is much lower in Haredi society. Higher education continues to expand, and in February 2026 India and Israel agreed to deepen cooperation in university research, student exchanges and artificial intelligence in education.
