"Parents are right when they say they do not have enough vacations, but not at our expense" • "In the Treasury threatened to go on my head. I told them not to move me" "The teachers' union responds to critics
"They think I'm tough, but I keep laughing."
Yaffa Ben David
Photo:
Eric Sultan
"What luck, you have not yet asked about the vacations," says Yaffa Ben-David just before I ask about the vacations, and lifts to her assumption.
Because she is already used to being attacked for the many days off teachers' holidays.
Precisely this year, one of the most challenging years for students, the Purim holiday extends from three days, as usual, to four.
The reason is that Shoshan Purim, Tu B'Adar, falls on a Saturday, so the holiday is postponed to Sunday. And with the holiday, of course, comes another day off. This means that elementary schools and kindergartens, some of which returned only a week ago, will have another day off, and parents again It's not going to change her mind.
"We live in a country that has few vacation days, and that's a catastrophe," she shoots.
"Instead of doing the right thing and talking about vacation days in the economy, we talk about teachers 'vacation. After all, teaching is eroding, and vacations are the teachers' oxygen. Parents are right when they say they do not have enough vacations, but neither on our backs nor at our expense. Worn, and you want quality. So we do not compromise on vacations. "
But the kids really hardly were in school this year.
"The teachers worked very hard in Zoom, and now, with the return of the schools, they work harder. For example, they have no break. To prevent crowds, they made a ranking of the classrooms going out for breaks, and those teachers should stay with them in the yard, then go back to teaching. "One in the country who would agree not to have a break and work all the time in a row."
Everyone and his difficulty at work.
"A teacher has to deal with several factors. The Ministry of Education, the administration, the students, the parents. It's eroding, it's hard. The fact that the rest of the workers in the economy do not have enough vacation days is another problem.
" People do not understand the intricacies of the education system.
How it works, even at this time.
During the Corona period, the status of teaching staff actually increased.
The parents learned to appreciate them because they suddenly had to sit down with their children and understand what it was like to be a teacher who needed to hold 35 students and promote them.
Then we know that we work hard, and that we deserve it. "
For four years now, she has been the secretary general of the Teachers' Union, the first woman in office.
A strong woman, who is not afraid to shout, if need be.
She is proud to tell, for example, how she shouted at the finance officials in the days of the first closure, when they considered taking the teaching staff to the Knesset to return the frontal school days later.
"The Treasury told me, 'You listen to what we say,' they threatened me to go head to head. My.
I told them I know I do things in faith and justice, and I do not care what they say about me.
I do not give a hoot.
I'm doing my job.
"I want to promote the teaching staff and put them in the right place. I have improved the pay conditions for teachers in many sections, such as the calculation of sick days, entitlement to travel expenses, pension supplements for retired retirees and payment supplements for additional positions."
During the Corona period it made headlines and even received harsh criticism when it insisted that distance learning was the same as close learning, while fighting not to return school days last July, when teachers were asked to return nine school days for the closure period.
In practice, as I recall, classes ended on the regular date, June 30, and the lower grades students attended the "School of Great Freedom."
"In the days of the Corona, teachers mobilized above and beyond, and did everything on their own to activate the issue of distance learning. And there is a lot in that. Maintaining personal contact with the student, his mental and emotional state, is the most important thing in this system. Investing in distance learning is more difficult than learning. Classroom".
Have the studies at Zoom been effective?
"Definitely. I see it on school tours around the country. I went into first grade in intelligence, and I see kids reading and writing in a way that is a waste of time. The teacher tells me, 'I want to say that not only are they reading and writing, they do it better than they used to. Do if they were studying in class. '
"Distance learning cannot be underestimated.
I salute the teaching staff for this work.
And in kindergartens, too, gardeners do their best.
I see how much it also contributed to my 4-year-old granddaughter.
Every time I come home, she shows me what work she did today and what she made yesterday. "
Some kindergartens do a zoom session once a week, some even less.
" Some gardeners do it a waste of time, and some less.
The program of distance learning in kindergartens has been defined as keeping in touch, and this should not be underestimated.
If we were to believe that distance learning is not good, we would say, stop it.
But we believe in it.
We know that the emotional and mental damage without a framework at all is very severe.
"So the kindergarteners gave very easy and simple tasks, just to keep in touch with the children. There were some who did it in small groups, and some such small groups do five hours of work a day.
" If there are kindergarteners who have not done it, they need to be dealt with spot by point.
Most do, overall.
Send to our groups the things they do, send to the Ministry of Education.
"Because a handful do not do what is necessary, it is impossible to say that not everyone does."
* * *
Recently, Ben-David (55) officially became a cultural star, when she won her own character in "A Wonderful Land," played by Tom Yaar.
There she is portrayed as the militant teacher, with a cup of coffee from the teachers' room and the desire for everyone to listen to her.
"The character they did to me is not expressed in the most beautiful way, I am not expressed in such a way," she tries to maintain restraint.
"My kids saw and laughed, but they also said I did not talk like that at all. It is a satire program, and there are exaggerations in it."
The truth is that there is not much exaggeration in the hasty hand movements her character makes.
When Ben-David plays a little assembly game on her desk, she moves it between her fingers back and forth.
On her neck is a necklace with four figures of children, as the number of her children, and also as the number of her grandchildren.
Only when she talks about her parents' house does she calm down a bit.
Her parents, the late Rachel and David Yifrach, were among the founders of Moshav Noam in the Lachish region. "I grew up in a house of values, in religious education.
My parents educated me to walk the straight path, with my truth.
That's how I educate my children, and thank God, it succeeds. "
She attended high school at Kibbutz Saad, and continued studies in reserve in physical education Kaye College of Education in Be'er Sheva (" I insulted president of the college, not knowing it was her, and when she was mad at me the whole class came to my defense "). In the IDF as a combat fitness instructor in Givati ("We did crazy and unreasonable fitness training, and I complained that the officer was crazy. He was later hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital").
After the army she started working as a sports teacher.
When she taught in an ultra-Orthodox school, she insisted that the girls also learn to swim and not just the boys, and she succeeded.
In 1992, she married Moshe Ben-David (60) and moved to Yeruham.
Today they live in Kiryat Gat.
Her husband runs a postal agency as a freelancer.
They have four children - Assaf (30), a practical engineer;
Hila (27), works in the culture department at the community center; Yair (25), graduates in mechanical engineering; and her father (22), the only one who went to teaching and works as an integration teacher. There are also four grandchildren, the eldest 4, the youngest four months. My children keep tradition at different levels, "she says proudly.
Ben-David began her career at the Teachers 'Union in 2001, when her mother offered her the position of chairman of the Teachers' Union in Kiryat Gat.
"She asked me how much I could continue to work so hard as a sports teacher because I was really active, and also brown because of working in the sun all the time. She said, 'You will cope, and we will pray for you.' I was a little apprehensive, still not really known. "So she died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 62, and I felt it was her will. I competed, and I won."
In 2006, she also tried to run for the position of secretary general of the Teachers' Union with the then chairman, Yossi Wasserman, lost and sat in the opposition for three years.
"I fought for things I was thinking of fighting for, like amendments to the New Horizons agreement. After three years, the government sought to abolish incentives for teachers in Priority A areas. I joined the coalition to get Wasserman to declare a labor dispute.
" I was then part of Wasserman's deputies.
People say I was close to him, but that's not true.
I was not on the limited management, which included 13 members.
By the way, I abolished the small management, and today all 63 members of the management make decisions together. "
In December 2016, an indictment was filed against Wasserman, following which he resigned. On October 3, 2017, he was convicted, according to his confession, of fraud and breach of trust. Trial, invasion of privacy and harassment of a witness. He was sentenced to four months in prison.
"Wasserman's indictment mentions three people, who allegedly followed their phones," says Ben-David. "I am one of them.
If I was close to him, why would he keep track of my phone calls?
But it was easy for people to say that everyone in the teachers' union was corrupt, and they tried to get filth on us.
"Thank God, since I have been the secretary general, you can see that the teachers' union is somewhere else. I also think that a person who has already paid the price should not be buried."
* * *
On March 15 last year, the prime minister announced that the educational framework was closing and that Israel was entering a closure, following the eruption of the corona.
The then Minister of Education was Rafi Peretz, and there was considerable friction between him and Ben-David.
"Rabbi Rafi Peretz is a good person, he is a charming person," she clarifies.
"But let's say it like that, he tried. He lacked tenacity. Maybe the job was not right for him, and he understood that. He did not have the political friction. Because in politics you have to know how things work. Often the Ministry of Finance will cheat on him. The whole big mess started, when you budgeted distance teaching hours at 50 percent of the budget of frontal teaching hours.
"After this decision passed in the Treasury, I asked the minister how he voted against his teachers.
I said to him, 'What, you do not see what you are doing?'
He said, 'Well, cheat on me.'
"The Ministry of Finance sees one thing, and that is money. And if you are not alert enough, they will pull the rug under your feet. And that is what they did, they pulled the rug under your feet. He understood the mistake and tried to correct it, when CEO Shmuel Abohav did not agree to sign. On this agreement, and it did not materialize.
With Minister Peretz, Abohav is the one who set the tone. "
And did you get along with Abohav?
" We had quite a few disagreements, but he was professional.
He comes from the field, and at the end there is a line, because we have to work together.
He really knew the system well, you can't take it away from him. "
How is your relationship with the current Minister of Education, Galant?
"Good, even though we do not see everything eye to eye. Galant addressed a number of things, which caused unrest and instability and ambiguity. He took care of the budget for Corona jobs (increasing the number of teaching staff for the Corona period; BA), which is a good thing, got a budget for protection. Educators, like Alcogel in educational institutions and masks, added a budget for the benefit of teaching supporters.
He also said that capsules are needed in grades 1-2 and in kindergartens, but the Ministry of Health said that they are not needed, so there are no capsules.
"Galant was also the one who said that the wage of a distance learning hour was equal to the hour of learning in the classroom, and that gave peace and stability and prevented unnecessary wars with the Treasury. After all, wars in the past did no good to anyone. And that Galant, gave a result without war. That. And if not, it will not happen. I like working with honest people. You do not have to agree with me, but I know it is not and yes it is. There are no reversals.
"Obviously the system could have been operated differently.
For example, it was possible to prepare an outline with small classrooms from the beginning of the year, instead of opening and closing again and again, and giving principals autonomy, because only they understand education.
But he fell on a difficult period, which I do not think another Minister of Education would have succeeded in. "
So he failed?
"There were things he succeeded in and there were not. The general problem was that the Ministry of Education and the Cabinet were not connected to the field and did not understand how the education system works, so the outlines were cut off from the field. But you can not judge a minister when he serves."
You also had disagreements with Galant.
You opposed the opening of the school year as a series on September 1, arguing that the children were still contagious and that the educational frameworks would be closed.
"And here came the mutation and it was over for all of us. And with the mutation, Galant took a step back and said, 'I will do what the Ministry of Health says.'
In the second and third closures, was it right to open special education?
"I had no doubt that special education systems in difficult complexities should continue to operate in closures as well. But to run special education in schools in minor complexities, one has to bring in a headmaster, secretary, principal and teacher. Then come only two out of ten students, and these are children who could Work with them individually even from a distance.
"In my opinion, we just did not look at the teaching staff, looked at the parents, and forgot that we also have children, and we also need solutions at home.
We turned to the whole world and his wife, and at our request, the Ministry of Education shortened the school day in special education to 14:00 instead of 17: 00-16: 00, and the school week was shortened to five days. "
Why only until 14:00?
" Because otherwise this whole system will collapse .
In special education there is a shortage of manpower.
Pregnant teachers are afraid to come to school, so they do not get infected.
Teachers whose children have gone into isolation stay home with them.
Even before that it was difficult to fill a place, and now it is difficult at all.
So if they extend, the system will crash.
That is why I say and explain to the parents: It is better for the system to work until 14:00 than for a yes day - no day, or it will not work at all. "
* * *
According to her, the current outline of returning to school has caught teachers and principals unprepared.
"Invite the whole world to the discussions, but not the teachers. This is how they set out inapplicable outlines for returning to school. How can you keep distance between children in kindergarten? How will they keep distance without capsules in first and second grades? Who can keep distance from small children?
" We were rolled from the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Health, each saying that the other had not yet decided, and that all decisions were subject to the Corona Cabinet, and in the end, the public knew before the principals.
The principals turned to me and said, how are we going to get back to school?
According to which outline?
And I kept telling them: Until you have something written, do not start preparing.
Because it is impossible to work with such ambiguity, one has to give preparation time.
"This thing, of throwing responsibility, very much hurt us as teachers, and hurt the public as well. There had to be one factor that planned the whole event, and it did not happen. We are not anyone's enemies. We want the good of the system. But there was no sharing, We were not invited to the hearings. "
She was not surprised when Health Minister Yuli Edelstein recently admitted that the Ministry of Health may have been wrong when it decided to open the store first and leave thousands of children at home instead of opening schools.
"Yeruham admits and leaves. A lot of ministers make mistakes and do not recognize them, throw them at others. A minister comes and says: Guys, we may have been wrong, we should have prioritized education and we did not. He apologizes for something we said in the first place, which should be prioritized education.
"I know Yuli.
We had some disagreements - for example, when he did not approve of giving sick certificates to teachers at risk, who did not want to teach because they feared the disease.
We also had disagreements about vaccines, when we did not give high priority to teaching staff, and after a labor dispute, we were able to raise the priority and allow teachers to be vaccinated.
Then they came from the Ministry of Health and said: Look, the teachers are not getting vaccinated.
And that is not true. "
According to the Ministry of Health, only 40 percent of the teachers were vaccinated with the second dose of the vaccine, and 60 percent were vaccinated with the first dose.
"I have 120,000 active teaching staff. We conducted two anonymous surveys, using a Google survey format sent in a link to Teachers Union members. We asked: Have you been vaccinated, or are you going to be vaccinated. We received almost 20,000 responses. 76 percent said we were already vaccinated. 18.5 percent said "We have not yet been vaccinated, and 5 percent said they do not intend to be vaccinated, with some recovering from corona, so they should not be vaccinated."
And do you believe this data?
"I know from previous surveys that teachers have a tendency to tell the truth."
Did you show the data to the Ministry of Health?
"Absolutely. They admitted that their examination encompassed all the staff in the educational institutions - including aides, self-employed workers and other factors, unrelated to the teachers' union, and therefore reached lower percentages. And I was left with what I kept saying: I fought to be vaccinated, and we are approaching 80 percent vaccinated.
"Vaccines are important.
I believe in medical people.
I got vaccinated, my family got vaccinated, and I tell my friends and teachers - go get vaccinated.
For those who have a question or concern, consult a medical professional.
The teacher needs to be vaccinated, first and foremost for himself.
To maintain his health, the health of the family and the health of the students. "
And yet, you strongly opposed the idea of enacting a law against teaching staff that would not be vaccinated.
" True, because there are other places where they come in contact with an audience.
Do you want to legislate?
Please, apply to everyone.
If there is a law, we too will respect the law.
But the fact that it did not materialize, because it can not implement.
"I am personally against sanctions. I think incentives, persuasion and advocacy will help a lot more. And we see that it works."
There is an argument that many teachers oppose vaccines because they do not really want to go back to work.
"It has no dawn. Those who know teachers understand that they want to work. After all, zoom is much harder to work with. During the zoom period, they juggle between their children and work, work four times harder than in class and give 200 percent more."
So there will be no refund of school days that have been canceled due to the closures?
"There's nothing to give back days on. You give back on something that is missing. There has not been a single moment that teaching staff have not worked."
Is it possible to save something from the lost school year?
"It is not lost. One should continue to study in small groups. The main problem is the emotional state of the children. Study material can always be taught."
And what about seventh to tenth grade students, who have not been to school for almost a year, with short breaks?
"You have to think about them and see how they are returned in a measured and informed way, even slowly, as they did with the 5th-6th grade. It really is not a solution to sit at home for almost a year. You have to work with them on the emotional state, and this can be done in breaks. In short meetings, be in a frame, even if it is once or twice a week for a few hours. "
How is your relationship with Ran Erez, chairman of the Association of Secondary Teachers?
"" Hello, hello.
He is mature and I am mature. "
* * *
Although Ben-David claims that the appreciation for teachers has risen in the wake of the Corona ("Parents have seen how difficult it is to have a class"), there are often complaints about the poor level of teachers.
A survey we conducted a few years ago found that more than two-thirds of teachers do not know what happened on November 29, only half know the countries bordering Israel and only about a third knew the words of the national anthem Hatikva. The secretary of the teachers' union is not excited.
"No system has 100 percent. There are quality teaching staff. I meet them with sparks in their eyes, with the mission, with love, they have love for the children and the work. The system is good, the quality is good, and you have to give them the tools to succeed.
" The teacher had to impart knowledge.
Today he needs to convey social value, teach children how to be good people, contain, know how to accept the different.
These are the values we grew up on.
"And we saw it in Corona, that there were schools that managed to flourish because they worked alone. For example, when the Ministry of Health allowed students' meetings to be held in the open air, I visited a school that had such beautiful plastic facilities installed on the lawn. A shelf to put the book on. The principal bought them from the school's management budget so that the children would be comfortable studying outside and not have to write on the grass. She gave her students the good tools for learning. And that's the beauty. Teachers have great initiatives, but the system can not Leverage herself if she is constantly told what to do.
"We teach today with insane loads.
What person can operate a system when there are 35 children in kindergarten or school, and in the upper grades even 39?
If we had small classes of up to 20 students, as in any capsule today, the teacher was fixed, the staffs were fixed, there was no overcrowding, individual hours would increase at the expense of frontal hours, the teacher could concentrate on working hours rather than at home, and everyone would benefit.
But the state does not invest in infrastructure. "
What would you do if you were the Minister of Education?
" I would aspire to raise the threshold for entry into teaching colleges. "
So you agree that the quality of teachers should be raised.
" You asked what I would do as Minister of Education, I say that is what should be done .
Teachers' salaries should also be raised, so that better quality people can come.
30 percent of new teachers leave the education system because of pay.
When we say that the average salary of teachers is NIS 13,700 gross, it refers to all teachers, including those who also work part-time.
But if you only take those who work full time, who are half of the teaching staff, the salary is much lower, around NIS 7,000.
And they do not work part-time voluntarily, there are simply no more standards.
"Besides, we need to deepen the internship in the schools. To give beginning teachers guidance, so that they can see how they are implementing what they have learned. At the same time, I would reduce the number of children in the classrooms and increase the number of teachers. I would make equality between center and periphery. Educational system until 13:30, then introduces everything that today is called 'enrichment classes'. Robotics, English reinforcements, airplanes. Not babysitting, but quality things, significant enrichment classes, which the state gives at no extra charge to parents, and brings them mainly to the periphery. "Because we need to give more budget to the periphery, to a weak city. To reduce the budget of a strong authority and add to the weaknesses, and thus reduce the gaps."
Would you like to return to teaching?
"A year ago I heard that a school teacher in Kiryat Gat could not find a sports teacher. I told the principal that if she did not find one, I would come and teach the students on Friday, my day off. It did not happen at the end, but yes, I miss teaching. I came from physical education, it A profession that all children love. "
The election for the position of Secretary General of the Teachers 'Union was supposed to take place only next year, but two weeks ago the management of the Teachers' Union announced their advance to June this year.
Why did you advance the election?
"Our wage agreement ended in January 2020, which means we now work without a wage agreement.
We will not wait another year or two to deal with this issue.
If we pull the time out, the teachers' union will go into the election long after the government finishes its election, and then we will not come strong in the struggle.
So I thought with my colleagues in the management, that the government would end its elections and we ours immediately after them, and not a year after them.
That's how we will come strong to the struggle, after we have already finished our elections and everything is organized. "
So when did we register the next strike?
" We have not returned in a long time.
We declare a labor dispute only when all the officers are gone, when all the negotiations and meetings and meetings do not succeed.
But when we see that we are being dragged and cheated and time-consuming, we declare a labor dispute.
Then we are listened to. "The
opposition in the Teachers' Union claims that the early elections were intended so that they would not talk about the lawsuit filed for irregularities in the previous elections.
" The opposition should be in favor of early elections, not against.
We know that apart from filth, the opposition did nothing.
The teachers judge you according to your actions on behalf of the teaching staff, and we come with the action, and they will judge us according to the actions on behalf of the employees. "
Have you been offered to join the political system?
" I received some suggestions, I will not say which parties, but I refused.
I have many more plans in the teachers 'union. "
Gila Klein, chairman of the Nahal faction and the opposition in the teachers' union, filed a restraining order against the decision to advance the election.
"In the last month, summaries have been submitted to the Internal Court after three and a half years of hearings regarding the corruption revealed in the 2017 elections, and these days the court is due to give a ruling on the matter," she said.
"For fear of exposing the corruption, Yaffa Ben-David took advantage of her position and declared early elections. This is out of complete disregard for the Corona epidemic, the economic situation, the difficult situation of the closed education system for a year. "In light of the lessons learned from the previous elections, the faction will reach the highest court and will not give up holding elections in a computerized manner with external and neutral control."
* * *
Where does your toughness come from?
"I think it's the experience of what I went through in life. My mother died at age 62, and my father died four years later, at age 67, two weeks after having a car accident. My brother died in 2019 after an illness. Another brother was in a flint disaster and apparently had leukemia. As a result. Thank God, now he is healthy and has children.
"When you experience such difficult things, everything dwarfs.
What do I care what someone says about me.
Even though I seemingly pay a personal price, when I am attacked in the media and said that I fight and struggle all the time. "
What do you regret?
" I do not know if I would have done things differently. "
From whom should you apologize?
" From my family, who see me less.
But my family is above all.
Even if I'm in a meeting with the Minister of Education, I say that if I have a phone call from my husband or children, I answer. "
What makes you funny?
" People think I'm tough, but I keep laughing.
I laugh from 'Great Country', both when they exaggerate and when they say wrong things.
My grandchildren make me laugh, it's a waste of time. "
When was the last time you cried?
" When my parents passed away, I cried a lot.
When my brother got sick, while I was in the military, I cried a lot.
Even when my brother passed away, I cried.
But can not remember when I last cried. "
What was the last book you read?
" The truth is I do not have a bedside book.
I do not have time to read.
When I was younger I would read a lot.
My daughter, Hila, lives in the apartment above me, and her father lives next to me.
So today, when I come home and I have time, I go to the children and grandchildren. "
batchene@gmail.co.il
