Schools in the Jewish-religious sector and Druze sector led in a number of fields in rankings released by the Education Ministry this week.The <a href="https://www.jpost.com/tags/education">Education</a> Ministry announced that there was a slight drop in the percentage of high school students that were eligible for a matriculation certificate (bagrut) in the 2019 school year.<div>69.7% of students earned a matriculation certificate compared to 69.9% in the previous year. In the Bedouin sector, the percentage of students eligible for a matriculation certificate fell 4%. In the haredi sector, the eligibility rose by 1.9%.</div><div>Some 71.8% of female students were eligible for a matriculation certificate, while only 67.2% of male students were eligible.</div><div>A number of <a href="https://www.jpost.com/tags/druze">Druze</a> towns lead the country in matriculation eligibility including Peki'in, with the highest rate (98.7%) in Israel, Hurfeish (97.1%) and Beit Jan (96.2%).</div><div>Ariel (97.7%), Kiryat Ekron (96.6%), Givat Shmuel (96.5%), Elkana (95.6%), Kaukab Abu al-Hija (94.5%), Tzura-Kadima (94.2%) and Ramat Hasharon (93.9%) were also in the top ten in Israel.</div><div>Modi'in Illit, a haredi city in the West Bank, had the lowest matriculation rate in Israel at only 4.7%, followed by Bnei Brak (95), Beitar Illi (15.9%), Rehasim (25.5%), Jisr az-Zarqa (31.5%), Tel Sheba (36.7%), Hazor HaHagalilit (37.1%), Segev Shalom (38.6%), Elad (39.6%) and Ofakim (47.4%).</div><template async="" id="4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6"> cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); });</template><div>Some 46 high schools in Israel achieved 100% matriculation eligibility. Most of these schools were state Jewish-religious schools. Five of the schools were religious-ecclesiastical schools in the Arab sector and nine of the schools were general state schools.</div><div>A number of the schools that achieved 100% matriculation eligibility have acceptance requirements and charge thousands of shekels in tuition payments.</div><div>The Education Ministry also published a ranking of schools based on the percentage of students who earned an "outstanding" matriculation certificate, which means that they learnt five units of English and at least four units of Math with an average grade of 90. The students must also achieve excellence in a program for personal development and social-community involvement.</div><div>The Darchei Noam Jewish-religious school for girls led the list of schools concerning "outstanding" matriculation certificates and was joined by six additional Jewish-religious schools for girls in the top 17 schools in this regard.</div><div>The Al-Qasemi Academy in Baqa-El-Gharbia ranked in second place in this regard and was joined by four other schools in the Arab sector and one school in the Druze sector in the top 17. Four general state schools ranked within the top 17 as well.</div><div>On Tuesday, the Education Ministry published a list of 755 "outstanding" high schools based on a number of paramaters including special education, IDF enlistment, civil services, matriculation eligibility and improvement.</div><div>Some 48% of the schools on the list were Jewish-state schools, 32% were Jewish-religious schools, 7% were in the Arab sector, 3.5% were haredi schools, 2.3% were Druze schools and 2.3% were Bedouin schools.</div><div>Eight out of the top ten outstanding schools were Jewish-religious schools.</div><div>The outstanding schools were split into four levels, with teachers in each school receiving grants based on the level the school achieved ranging from NIS 3,119 to NIS 8,318.</div>