Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White party, said on Thursday that, were he elected, he would abolish 12th grade and move the matriculation exams to 11th, as he unveiled his party’s education plan.
During his comments, made at the Education Watershed conference, he said the system requires deep change and warned the overhaul could involve a prolonged struggle that might shut schools for a year.
Gantz said Blue and White will require core studies and state education for every pupil, cancel political funding in education, and split curriculum content in a 50–30–20 model.
He pledged to abolish parental fees by shifting those costs to local authorities and to convert 12th grade into a national preparatory year for all young Israelis, with matriculation ending in 11th grade. The plan also promised free education from birth within five years, prioritizing families in service, and a teaching overhaul that integrates technology and AI from first grade.
Gantz said that in the next government, his party, if elected, would demand that the Education Ministry appoint a minister for whom the portfolio is a mission, not a political compromise.
He argued that only a broad, Zionist government without extremists can deliver structural change, criticizing both the current right-wing coalition and the previous “change” government for failing to fix education. Fundamental reform, he said, is possible only within a wide coalition.
‘Year-long struggle would be worth it’
“The education system needs a serious change,” Gantz said, adding that if this requires a long struggle that shuts schools for a year but sets them right for decades, “it is worth it.”
He framed education as Israel’s top national priority and said the initiative aims to shape the next 77 years. According to Gantz, the reforms would realign resources and strengthen state education across sectors.