Ministry of Education has difficulty formulating a formula that will allow students who have "forgotten at home" to go back to study In Habima Square in Tel Aviv

While much of the education system's students have already returned to school, their fourth and fourth elementary students are still in their homes and forced to study remotely. The Ministry of Education plans to bring them back to school, for two days of school a week, as early as next week (probably Thursday and Friday), but it will be at the expense of students who are already in the system, grades 1-3 will have to stay two days at home. 

After about two months: The schools gradually return to activity // Photo: Moshe Ben Simhon, newsenders, Paz Bar

Another possibility that is on the agenda is that fourth and sixth graders will only return to school on Friday and on the other days will study remotely. A more optimistic option is that the Ministry of Health approves to increase the number of students in each group, and then more students can return. However, for the time being, no outline has been finalized yet. Recall that even the middle schools have not returned to school yet, and no complete outline has been drawn up for their return.

Yossi Lvov, the father of two girls, one of them in the fourth grade, and chair of the parents' committee at the Arlozorov School in Kiryat Haim, said: "Two months the education system is disabled, and the Education Ministry's top has not yet drawn up a neat plan for the return of the other students." 

He said, "It's a sad case, there was so much time to think about creative solutions and leave kids with a very large learning hole here. Experiment with children here, whatever their teachers are required to teach in third grade that come to school, so Distance learning is also ineffective. Shopping malls and schools cannot be returned. " 

The Ministry of Education did not comment. 

In the meantime, yesterday, the local government center signed an agreement with the aid organization belonging to the Ma'apot Histadrut, under which the aid workers will work during Lag Ba'omer. However, the opening of all gardens in all cities is still far away, the main reason being the shortage of manpower. Horticulture will be absent from the garden and therefore two assistants on each garden. Corona and capsule restrictions make the situation even worse as there are restrictions and not every aid can work in any garden.

At the same time, parents' protest over the lack of space in the daycare is expanding. This is about the subsidized supervised daycare returned yesterday, but on their return, the fact that thousands of toddlers who had no room in the frames remained at home. Recall that the decision was made that the dorm activity would be in regular groups of up to 17 children in each class and that they would not rotate - for this reason parents were notified that their children, who were registered, simply had no room and were told not to bring the children to the daycare.

After demonstrating yesterday at the home of Minister of Welfare Ophir Akunis, today the parents are planning a larger demonstration in Habima Square in Tel Aviv (at 17:00). Among other things, parents require the return of all children to kindergartens and allow all parents to return to the job market without discrimination as well as transparency in decision making.

Sivan Kamin Ofek, the mother of a 3-year-old boy at the Na'amat residence, said "discrimination must end. I have to lie to a boy who still has a corona, because I have no way to explain it to him. I don't blame the kindergarten teacher, but you can't make a selection for kids at that age. "

It is estimated that only about 60% of toddlers have space, so that at-risk toddlers, children for single mothers, and so on are prioritized.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs said: "In accordance with the Ministry of Health's guidelines, we were required to give a limited response according to a criterion of up to 17 children in the classroom. After consulting with experts, the recommendations were that the age of birth to 3 should not be rotated."

Other dormitories that did not open yesterday are subsidized supervised dorms that belong to private individuals. These are about 700 preschools (0 - 3 years) that include 50,000 toddlers and ten thousand caregivers and staff. The operators of these dormitories demand compensation from the Finance Ministry for the heavy losses they incurred due to rental payments and construction during the crisis. At the AMA - a national dormitory union, they said: "We call on the government and the treasury to come to understandings. It is not possible that seven crises will abandon entrepreneurs and children in our dormitories and their parents who must return to work."

At the same time, about two months after learning was stopped, kindergarten children (3 - 6) and daycare (0 - 3) returned to the frames, at least partially. Throughout the day there was a high presence in the state gardens, while in the Arab and ultra-Orthodox societies there was a lower rate. A total of about 60% was recorded.

Irena Haimov, a kindergarten teacher at the Oranit kindergarten in Ramla, said of the encounter with the children: "I am excited every new year, every holiday or event - but I do not remember such excitement to meet the children." She said, "It was something that could not be explained. The children came with joy and enthusiasm to come back. What bothered me was that I couldn't give the whole-hearted hug as we do in our kindergarten, it was very lacking. For the children today it was abnormal fun, though They asked, saying that the members of the other group were missing. "