Minister of Education, Yoav Kisch: “When I took office three years ago, we embarked on strengthening foundational skills, including through the ‘Growing Anew’ program, a focused and individualized investment in the weaker students across all sectors of society. The fact that this is now reflected in the results is pleasing and encouraging. Above all, this is an expression of the professional and dedicated work of the educational teams, who lead the process in the classrooms daily.”
The Ministry of Education and the National Institute for Testing and Evaluation (NITE) are publishing the results of the “Tnu’fa” (Momentum) tests in mother tongue literacy for 4th graders (2024-2025). The findings indicate a significant improvement in student achievements compared to the 2023-2024 school year, continuing a positive trend observed in recent years.
In the test for Hebrew speakers, achievements increased by 15 points, and in the separate test for Arabic speakers, by 11 points. Among Hebrew speakers, the data indicates an improvement in achievements across all types of supervision. Among Arabic speakers, there is a decrease of 13% in the proportion of students at the lowest performance level, alongside consistent strengthening of intermediate levels – a trend indicating broad systemic progress. In the Arabic test, a significant increase in the achievements of Bedouin students in the South is notable, with an average achievement increase of 36 points compared to 2023-2024. This follows a decrease of 23 points in their achievements in 2023-2024 relative to 2022-2023.
Main Findings:
- Among Hebrew-speaking students, 71% meet the curriculum requirements (high performance level) – an increase of 9% compared to the previous year.
- Improvement was recorded across all types of Hebrew supervision: an increase of 14 points in state supervision, 20 points in state-religious supervision, and 13 points in ultra-Orthodox supervision (among students who participated in the test).
- 52% of Hebrew-speaking schools and 48% of Arabic-speaking schools significantly improved their students’ achievements compared to the previous school-level measurement in 2022-2023.
- Female students’ achievements are higher than male students’ achievements in both tests.
The tests were conducted in March 2025, with approximately 90,000 students in Hebrew-speaking institutions and about 27,000 students in Arabic-speaking institutions participating.
Alongside the positive trend, the data illustrates that continued strengthening of language skills and increasing the proportion of students at high performance levels, particularly in the Arab community, remains a central goal in the system’s work.
The Ministry of Education views the Tnu’fa test results as an expression of the pedagogical initiatives led by the Ministry in recent years, most notably the ‘Growing Anew’ program, launched during the 2023-2024 school year in response to the learning challenges created by the Swords of Iron War.
The program was designed as a focused intervention to strengthen foundational skills and reduce gaps, and was implemented in 2023-2024 with a total budget of approximately 180 million NIS, which included, among other things, a significant expansion of individual hours for students, alongside the operation of focused, dedicated programs and pedagogical support in schools.
Within the framework of the program, the MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports) pedagogical model was implemented, based on personalized responses for each student. The Ministry of Education notes that the Tnu’fa test results serve as a tool for evaluating the effectiveness of the initiatives and for guiding continued work on strengthening language literacy.
The full reports are attached
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