Punishment for eighth-twelfth graders in red cities: The class is not vaccinated enough? Will you move to study zoom
Grades 8-12 in Red Cities: A class where the proportion of vaccinated students (including recovering students) is less than 70% - will move to online learning. If more than 70% are vaccinated - the class will remain in frontal learning.
This is one of the most dramatic decisions with a simple meaning: tens and even hundreds of thousands of students will study from home on September 1, for two reasons.
The first - many major cities, where Ashdod, Rishon Lezion and Beer Sheva are defined as red (about 150 municipalities and neighborhoods in total). The second - a student is considered vaccinated only after receiving the second vaccine.
In other words, students who were vaccinated in the last week, just before 1 September, are not yet counted as vaccinated, so it will be very difficult to reach 70% of vaccinated students.
This means that for many - September is a "lost month".
At its core, it is a good decision that will encourage vaccination, but on the other hand it will bring within the walls of schools the battles between vaccine supporters and vaccine opponents - when students are not vaccinated and their parents are likely to be pressured to return to normal classroom learning.
Learning to zoom.
The photo has nothing to do with the news // Photo: Gary Abramovich,
The saga of the Minister of Education's opposition comes to an end: Students will be vaccinated during school hours - only according to demand
Students in the education system will be vaccinated on school grounds during school hours, as needed and subject to parental approval.
As revealed in "Israel Today", at least 50 parental permits will be required to order a vaccine mobile.
The decision to vaccinate students while in school is an important decision, as vaccinations in schools are a way to reach vulnerable populations, where parents' awareness or leisure to take their children for vaccination is low.
However, in order for the school immunization system to work in the field, several conditions are needed: Vaccinations in schools will be carried out through vaccine mobility teams, who will come to vaccinate the students in a centralized manner.
Each such mobile costs money, and in order to streamline resources, decision-makers have set a standard for vaccines: at least 50 parents seeking to vaccinate their children.
However, as published in "Israel Today", in the school year there was indeed an attempt to vaccinate students in schools - except that in practice only 3 vaccine mobiles were ordered throughout the country.
That is, in practice, unresponsiveness on the part of the parents and lack of enthusiasm on the part of the principals doomed the trial to failure.
Vaccination of teenagers at the National Health Fund in Rishon Lezion, last week // Photo: Yossi Zeliger,
The dilemma of the teacher who refuses to get vaccinated: The green mark will also apply to teaching staff
The "green character" outline will also apply to teaching staff in kindergartens and schools.
It is a decision whose role is to protect young students who cannot be vaccinated, but it has enormous implications for the education system.
According to data from the Ministry of Education, one in six teachers is not vaccinated (32,000 in total).
Following the new decision to apply a green mark to them, they will have to present corona tests with a negative result before entering the classrooms.
First, the question arises what will happen to a teaching employee who does not want to be tested or vaccinated?
Will he stay home and continue to receive money, or will he be sent to teach Zoom, a move that will hurt students after a year and a half of distance learning?
If it is decided to send the teachers home, the question arises who will replace the teachers who will not come to work due to the fact that they are not vaccinated?
The education system is already facing a shortage of teaching staff, and certainly kindergarten teachers (the education system has 20,000 kindergartens for ages 6-3).
For example, data from the Ministry of Education show that about 3,000 kindergarten teachers are not vaccinated, and it is not clear where replacements can be obtained.
Another issue is isolation: the unvaccinated are committed to isolation - so a kindergarten teacher who has been exposed to a verified patient may disable kindergarten work during the isolation period.
The green character // Photo: Ministry of Health,
Trust in parents - and the extra hat of teachers: On September 1, elementary students will present a negative self-test.
On the opening day of the school year, students up to the age of 12 will be required to present a parental permit to perform an antigen (home) test that results in a negative result.
The program to distribute antigen tests is at its peak, and the goal is to distribute rapid home tests to students in the education system so that parents can perform the test at home and send the students healthy, without fear of coronation.
But one should pay attention to the term "will be required" - the education system has no way of knowing if the parent did perform the test before signing the form and there is no way to force the parents to perform the test for their children.
Alongside these, it is not clear to whom the students will have to present the credentials, as the teachers' organizations have already announced that they are not prepared for the teaching staff to serve as “cops”.
However, each school will have a Corona superintendent who will be responsible for approvals and speed tests, and has even been allocated a budget for this, except that they have not yet started recruiting the incumbents and in any case their training for this has not yet begun.
Home inspection at one of the pharma chains // Photo: Yehoshua Yosef,