Teachers protest that at-risk teaching staff are required to teach • Parents respond: "Allow everyone to learn continuously"

• Another threat: high morbidity data

  Photo: 

  Gideon Markovich

The struggle in the education system in the shadow of the corona: The hearing in the Labor Court regarding the threat of a strike by the teachers' union to prevent harm to teachers at risk has ended. During the hearing, Judge Hadas Yahalom sent the parties to discuss the possibility of an interim period until the holidays in which he will examine who are the teaching staff who are at risk - these will go to an occupational physician - and in the meantime they will be recognized sick days. At the end of the hearing, the judge ruled that tonight (Sunday) at 19:00, the parties will meet again in court for a hearing on additional information from the Ministries of Education and Health.

Judge Yahalom summoned the directors of the Ministry of Education and Health to the morning hearing, after the state representatives did not come up with clear answers.

Photo: Ministry of Education

"Everyone who was in the courtroom today saw that the Ministry of Education and Health does not really care about teaching staff at risk," said the chairman of the Teachers' Union, Yaffa Ben-David, at the end of the hearing. "This is human life and no one cares. "I welcome the judge's decision to summon the directors of the Ministries of Education and Health to the evening hearing." They should give answers and not try to evade as they have done so far. "

As you may recall, the Teachers' Union has threatened to suspend classes in kindergartens, elementary schools and middle schools if a solution is not found for teaching staff who are at risk and are required to come and teach. The teachers' union claims that the Ministry of Education refuses to allow them to study only remotely, is not willing to give them sick days, and demands that they go to the IDF and receive a partial salary.

for further reading:

• Application for a restraining order against the teachers' union

• Parents in tension: Will there be studies in "red" cities as well?

• "Big responsibility on the shoulders": Teachers are afraid of starting a school year that will look completely different

Ben-David threatened to suspend schooling about two weeks ago, declaring three labor disputes: about teaching staff who are at risk and obligated to attend classes, teachers' pension terms and how to calculate the reduction of sick days for teaching staff. The last two issues have been resolved in negotiations with the Treasury.

Will be marked in burgundy and black

Another problem that threatens to open the school year as planned is the high morbidity figures for the weekend. The Ministries of Health and Education are to decide today or tomorrow whether to open the school year in tenth-twelfth grades in "red" cities, or to postpone its opening until after the holidays. This means that these students will study only remotely and will not come to school at all.

Meanwhile, the parents also intend to disrupt the studies in localities where the adult students (Thursday and above) will study in classes for only two or three days. According to the outline of the Ministry of Education, fifth graders and above are supposed to study a minimum of two days in schools and all the rest of the time by distance learning. The parents are angry about this claiming that it is ineffective learning.

However, there are cities that manage to get children to learn more frontally than the outline requires at a minimum.

In response, parents plan to create a map that will show the minimum number of days children study in each locality. Localities where students study for only two days will be marked in black and those who study for three days will be marked in Bordeaux - and they claim that these localities will be disabled by the parents. "The national parent leadership is repeatedly appealing to the decision-makers in the Ministry of Education to find solutions that will enable Israeli children to study continuously and safely in schools," they noted.