<Tr> <Th> Secondary diploma </Th> <Td> 85% </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Post-secondary diploma </Th> <Td> 49% </Td> </Tr> <P> Education in Israel refers to the comprehensive education system of Israel . The education system consists of three tiers: primary education (grades 1 - 6, approx . ages 6--12), middle school (grades 7 - 9, approx . ages 12--15) and high school (grades 10 - 12, approx . ages 15--18). Compulsory education takes place from kindergarten through to 12th grade . The school year begins on September 1, ending for elementary school pupils on 30 June, and for middle school and high school pupils on 20 June . </P> <P> Education in Israel is highly valued in the national culture with its historical values dating back to Ancient Israel as education was viewed as one of the fundamental blocks of Ancient Israelite life and civilization . Israeli culture views higher education as the key to higher mobility and socioeconomic status in Israeli society . For millennia medieval European antisemitism often forbade the Jews from owning land and farming, which limited their career choices for making a decent living . This forced many Jews to place a much higher premium on education allowing them to seek alternative career options that involved entrepreneurial and white - collar professional pursuits such as merchant trading, science, medicine, law, accountancy, and moneylending as these professions required higher levels of verbal, mathematical, and scientific literacy . The emphasis of education within Israeli society has its modern roots at least since the Jewish diaspora from the Renaissance and Enlightenment Movement all the way to the roots of Zionism in the 1880s . Jewish communities in the Levant were the first to introduce compulsory education for which the organized community, not less than the parents, was responsible for the education of the next generation . With contemporary Jewish culture's strong emphasis, promotion of scholarship and learning and the strong propensity to promote cultivation of intellectual pursuits as well as the nation's high university educational attainment rate exemplifies how highly Israeli society values higher education . </P>

When does the school year start in israel