"Changing the Right Thing Under Fire": Principals’ Challenges in Implementing the Accommodation Policy in Matriculation Examinations During Wartime

The October 7 war severely disrupted Israel’s upper secondary education system, undermining learning continuity and the implementation of high-stakes matriculation examinations across diverse regions and communities. In response, the Ministry of Education formulated the accommodation in the matriculation examinations policy aimed at preserving fairness and educational stability under conditions of prolonged instability. This study explores how high school principals interpreted and enacted the policy during wartime. Based on 36 semi-structured interviews, the data were analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis to explore the challenges, dilemmas, and leadership practices that emerged in this war context. The findings identify three central themes: principals as policy mediators navigating between centralized directives and unequal local realities; dilemmas of fairness and assessment validity amid differential disruptions; and processes of professional learning and sustained transformation in leadership practices. By examining policy enactment under conditions of armed conflict, the study highlights professional judgment as a central mechanism through which principals mediate centralized directives within uneven and rapidly changing school realities, underscoring the need for policy frameworks that enable bounded discretion during prolonged emergencies.