Teachers forged academic degrees, principals received salaries they did not deserve - and were forced to repay them • It is precisely those who are supposed to educate the future generation who provide a dubious role model

• Teacher // Illustration photography: Ami Shumen

Teachers forged academic degrees, principals received unpaid salaries - and were forced to return them. The education system is supposed to deal not only with grades but also to educate for values ​​and behavior according to law. But it seems that precisely those who are supposed to impart these values, have tried to deceive the Ministry of Education.

The Enforcement Division of the Ministry of Education recently revealed that 33 teaching staff and principals had fake academic degrees - meaning they did not complete teaching studies at all. Suspected of falsifying the academic degree are two school principals and teachers who teach in schools in East Jerusalem.

Teachers submitted the fake academic degrees to get a teaching license, as well as to bounce their salaries. Thus, for example, the penalty for a document forgery offense is an actual imprisonment of up to one year. However, forging a document with the intention of obtaining anything through it can result in an actual prison sentence of up to three years.

According to Dudi Cohen, director of the enforcement department at the Ministry of Education: "These are very serious cases. It can be likened to a doctor being hired to work at a hospital with a fake degree. There is a serious injury to students here, and we do not intend to move on to the agenda." According to Education Minister Yoav Galant: "I take very seriously any attempt to misrepresent and fraudulently cause the employment of teaching staff without being officially authorized to do so. The Ministry of Education under my leadership will act against submitter of forged certificates, including teaching staff."

Irregularities appear to occur not only in teachers but also in department heads and local authority education departments. An audit conducted by the Enforcement Unit in the Wages and Labor Agreements Division of the Ministry of Finance revealed wage irregularities among dozens of officials in the total amount of tens of millions of shekels.

According to the agreement signed between the Association of Heads of Education Departments in the Local Authorities and the Teachers' Union and the Local Government Center, these principals are obligated to reach a position in the field of teaching. As a result, their respectable salary also embodies their seniority in the education system. However, in some cases, people with no experience and no basic requirement such as a teaching certificate were assigned to these positions - so in practice, they are not entitled to the salary they received. For example, the director of the education department in the Sharon region was assigned to the position even though she had never been a teacher or performed an educational-pedagogical position. The same principal was paid by the principals of education departments, when in practice she did not even have a teaching certificate, and in the end she was forced to return about NIS 70,000 to the city coffers. Also, the test revealed that many department heads receive unfounded and exceeding payments such as standby hours, global overtime and more.

According to a source in the Ministry of Finance, the Association of Heads of Education Departments in Local Authorities and the Teachers' Union are misleading both the authorities and the heads of education departments. "The directors of the education departments are promised a higher salary than allowed by law, and in the end the principals of the education departments are forced to meet the employees of the enforcement unit, reduce the current salary by thousands of shekels and return tens of thousands of shekels to the public coffers.

The Association of Directors of Local Government Education Departments stated that it has signed collective agreements and is working to implement them accordingly and in accordance with the agreements only. The Teachers 'Union stated: "The Teachers' Union has signed collective agreements, among others, of directors of education departments in the local authorities. The Histadrut respects the collective agreements and works to implement them."