Why are Israeli teenagers so stupid?

The question, formulated more politely as "Why Israel failed in the PISA exams?", is the title of an article in today's fishwrap HaAretz. Prof. Irit Keinan * (from "Women Make Peace" movement), one of the top mandarins of the educational establishment, observes the paradox of Israel's very high investment in education and the very poor results. She writes that it should not be like that, since she KNOWS that children fail in exams because of poor facilities and lack of teaching equipment. And in Israel, education is well budgeted. The government school is frequently the only building in Bedouin tent encampments in the desert.

She discovers the solution to the paradox in the "bizarre alliance" between the right-wing political indoctrination and liberal multiculturalism. Ah! this may be an important insight! But no, she goes on protesting against the politicians in education, and proposes more humanities. To understand the idea, I try to identify the politicians in education and yes, the Minister is a politician, but under her, the bureaucracy is "technological", "professional", career-administrators with Ph.D.s in Education. What is what she wants? Whom she hates? Only she knows. **

Regarding humanities, yes, the latest directive is to emphasize mathematics, and a fifth advanced math subject has been added to the curricula. Is she against it? It is unclear.

I should moderate my criticism of the article because it provides a clear answer to the title question, why are Israeli teenagers so stupid and cannot match Equatorial Guinea *** PISA ranking. It is because Israeli educational leaders are confused and stupid. ****

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*   She has a nice smile.
** May be she does not.
*** Equatorial Guinea does not participate in the PISA.
**** There is another possibility, but it would invalidate the gist of my criticism. May be Israelis are not very bright, could that be possible?