Mekif Alef High School is a six-year comprehensive school and the first of its kind in Beer Sheva, the Negev and Israel in general and has served as a prototype for all the comprehensive schools in Israel. From its establishment in the 1950s until today, the school has set the goal of educating youth in its own unique way, with a broad emphasis on addressing excellence and language, as well as emphasising educational values,  skills development, high involvement in the community, and cultural, artistic and sporting endeavours. Teachers and principals who have left the school continue to share this unique pedagogical model in the country. In 1999, the school received the National Education Prize in the presence of the President of the State of Israel and in 2003, the school received the Yitzhak Lubber Municipal Education Prize.