INTERVIEW: ARNON IKAN, HEAD OF ISRAELI CENTRE FOR EXCELLENCE

'We can offer you programs for education of leaders with a sense of community wherever they work, from laboratory to politics'

Goran Mehkek / CROPIX Author:Karmela Devi During last year's visit of the President Josipovic to Israel, a possibility for cooperation in education has been presented. Croatia would, theoretically anyway, import experts from Israel and programs that would stimulate the best and the most talented. While they are the world's leader when it comes to science, Israelis are straggling with their education system that is becoming more elitist and the results of their students on PISA international tests are relatively bad. Schools in Israel have one of the biggest gap in the world between results of good and bad students. Last week Arnon Ikan, head of the Israel Centre for Excellence in Education has visited Zagreb. That Jerusalem institution of excellence was established in 1990s by American Jews, headed by than President of AIPAC, biggest organization in the USA that represents

Jewish people. Responsible at AIPAC have concluded wisely that the best way to contribute to Israel is to establish a school that will promote excellence.

Boarding school for talents

Q. The most prestigious program within your Centre for excellence is Israeli arts and science academy, and that is in fact the best high school in the country A. Our school is attended by children from the whole of Israel, those who shows highest motivation for studying and creating. We recognize them through complex and long lasting entrance exam that has 3 stages. Our school is a boarding school and it is very important that those accepted fit in as well to contribute to the society through voluntary work that is an important part of the program. Students from 9th till 12th grade volunteer 3 to 4 hours per week in the community. Our school cooperates with around 20 organizations that are taking care of people with special needs. 40% of our students, before they start military obligations, spend 1 year volunteering in the community and go to the army one year later. National average of newly graduated high school students who volunteer for 1 year is only 2.5%. (Military service is obliged in Israel. Men serve 3 and women 2 years. Israelis study after the military service, from age 21 or 22....note by the author). Curriculum in our school, as well as atmosphere and motivation, are significantly above national average. We emphasize research skills, creativity and prepare them to be leaders. It is asked of them to be responsible, to lead activities and in that way they are taught skills of leadership. We want them to be leaders in laboratories, universities, in the industry and society in general. Q. Why is volunteer work so important? A. We are looking for individuals who can contribute to the community by their knowledge and skills, it is important that they are highly motivated to contribute to the community. Those who find important to have a good job and be paid for it, but also to help others. It is important not just to educate those people, but make them sensitive towards the needs of the community. We do not want only experts but good people as well. We call it "mentsh" and it means a person that is kind and good that has the right values and takes care of the society. Our school is for student from 10th till 12th grade.

Scholarships
Q. Can a student from Croatia enroll in your school? A. No, it has to be a citizen of Israel. We do not accept children from abroad. School can be attended by non-Jewish kids, but it is important that their families live in Israel. Main reason is that we do not want kids who are 15 or 16 years of age to live too far from their families. This is a boarding school and the program is very demanding. But we are thinking about opening our doors for abroad students, in the future.

Q. What is the percentage of Arabs in the school? A. We have from 8 to 10% of non-Jewish kids, and mostly they are Arabs, whether they are Christians or Muslims, than Druze Q. What is the scholarship fee in your school? A. Scholarship fee is around USD 8000 per year which, in comparison to other boarding schools around the world, is not expensive. Boarding schools in the USA, for example, cost USD 30.000, 40.000 and even 50.000 per year. Basic philosophy is that those who have shown knowledge to pass our exams can not stay outside the schools because of financial reasons. Therefore, money can not stand between talented student and our school. Most of our students come from the rural area and around 80-90% of them receive scholarships. There are two sources of scholarship: Ministry of education and private donations, mostly from the USA, from Jewish individuals or Jewish Foundations. Q. What you are offering to the Croatian schools is your program Excellence 2000 that is used in your organisation but also in some schools in USA and Singapore. What kind of program is that? A. Program has been developed in late 1990s. In Israel, our Centre is conducting it together with the Ministry of education and it is implemented in schools all over the country. It is intended for highly motivated, excellent students in math and science. It is implemented from 4th till 9th grade (from the age of 10 to 15). For this program Centre for excellence does not select students, but they are selected by their teachers in schools. We provide materials by which teachers and students will work, specially designed for those motivated students so it can be incentive for them, to start even more interest for further development of critical and scientific thinking skills. Furthermore, we teach the teachers about methodology, how to work with such students. When school decides to implement our Excellence 2000 program, we start to work with their teachers who teach math and science.

Government for the future

Q. You have spent several days in Zagreb, spoke to important people of this country....what is your impression? A. If the Government, the Ministry of education, the President if all put excellence in education, as well as excellence at universities and innovations in the industry as priority, than a lot can be done. But I mainly speak about excellence in education. If they put this as a part of platform for the near future and if they invest time in it, efforts and budget, there is no doubt that you here are capable of doing great things. Q. Employees of your Centre for excellence are working in schools in Singapore as well. If we compare PISA test results, students from Singapore are among best placed unlike Israeli students who do not show great knowledge. What is Singapore buying from you?

A. There students are indeed brilliant in study discipline and on international tests they score high results. But as we were told by people of Singapore themselves, they lack creativity; they are not strong in thinking outside the established frame. That is what we teach them. If you take their learning skills and discipline and combine it with new way of thinking, creativity you get a lot. Q. There is no doubt that Israel is excellent in science, but is not near to excellence when it comes to the general education in the country. Numbers shows that in your country gap between students who concur teaching materials good or bad is one of the highest in the world. Are you working on overcoming those differences? A. Politics is in the hands of the Government and the Ministry of Education, our Centre does not deal with such issues. Over the last few years there are programs that ministry has started with the aim to overcome such differences. It is studied how teachers work in schools, how much time they spend in the school, how high are their salaries, what is the methodology and how to bring the whole class towards better results.

PISA and curriculum

Q. Where is the genesis of such success and results high imbalance in schools? A. I can not correctly analize such process that has brought us in the position that you are mentioning.....I do not have enough information. I am relatively new in education. Over the past year or two, we in Israel have realized that there is a significant difference between testing in PISA exams and what we teach in our schools, by our curriculum. One of ways for those results to be better is to make modifications of the program for schools in Israel. Q. Will knowledge and people of the Centre for excellence work on reducing big difference between students, within their education results in Israel? A. Our Centre is thinking about that over the past few years. Not just to work with excellent but promote excellence in the whole class. In the past 2 years we were involved in pilot project that is about to end and included 12 schools in Jerusalem and Yehuda. It is intended for students from 4th till 6th grade and its aim is to motivate the whole class to achieve excellent results in human sciences and math. Also, laboratories have been renovated. We have made computer programs that are awakening curiosity- that is how they react when they see our visual math. This pilot project ends in June and currently we are talking with the Israeli ministry of education about continuing the projects. Feedback from the children, teachers, and head of schools even the ministry is very positive. This kind of program we would also like to offer outside Israel. Not just Excellence 2000 program, aimed for talented and gifted, but program like this that is aimed for the entire class.

USA, Chili, Columbia.....

Q. What else do you do in the world? A. In the USA we are conducting Excellence 2000 program within 150 schools. Half of them are Jewish schools; others are public schools in the states all over the country. We also operate in Singapore in over 30 schools. Currently, Chile and Columbia are interested in our programs. We also examine the possibility for cooperation with Canada, Australia and UK.

Teachers must bring riddles into class, never finished formulas!

Q. You are educating the teachers about the methodology that makes teaching fun? A. Unlike regular class where teacher is entering the classroom, starts writing on the board saying: "today we will learn about this and that...", and students take notes the whole time, teachers using our method comes to class to do experiment. They either bring experiment or a riddle The kids have no idea what they will learn today because the teacher does not mention it. When we train teachers, teachers themselves do not know what we shall talk about. It means that students have to conclude by themselves, working on experiment. Teachers will give them general idea, what to do....but a lot they have to do and conclude individually. We educate the teachers how to encourage the children to ask questions, how to think scientifically, how to lead them through experiment without obtrusion... Q. The school has so called virtual learning Centre? A. That is the part of Excellence 2000 program. In Israel, that program has been implemented by 300 schools, and it is used by over 150 schools in the USA and 30 in Singapore. We have also finished a pilot project in India. We are looking for new countries to implement the program. We would love to work in Croatia. At the same time, we are working on competition from human sciences and math for students from different time zones. Students from USA, Israel and Singapore are competing on the same day, at the time when it is late at night in Singapore, morning in the USA and afternoon in Israel. It is amazing to watch such atmosphere and energy in students and teachers. They are all very excited to learn in such way, it is an adventure for them. We want students to feel excitement and love towards science.

Zagreb's 15th high school for Start up Nation

Arnon: I have visited Zagreb's 15th High School. It is excellent, leading school here. I think if there is a national level program, such as one we have in Israel, Excellence 2000, that provides special treatment and materials to excellent and talented, including the education of teachers, meaning if there is a way to identify talented and work with them additionally, if you would within the ministry of education have department for talented such as we have in Israel, you would have stable platform and motor to promote excellence within the system. Than it would not matter if you attend 15th high school because program for talented would be implemented in schools all over Croatia, not just in Zagreb. They call us now the Start Up Nation. But when I think of Israel in 1960s and 1970s, we have had many problems and challenges. We were not born as a Start Up Nation. We have gone through various processes and challenges to achieve where we are today. Croatia can significantly change if those who make decisions start thinking about the country they wish to have in 10 years from now and if problems are seen as possibility for growth.