Education Minister Yifat Shasha Bitton again promised another program to reduce gaps this week, but the Israel Today survey shows that so far, four months before the end of the middle school and high school year, no comprehensive program to reduce learning gaps has been implemented.
This, despite the Minister's promises in August - before the start of the school year.
The education system is still licking the wounds from the fifth wave of the corona, which created additional learning gaps on those caused by the corona in the previous school year, 1951. The Minister of Education promised this week that immediately after Passover another program will be launched to reduce gaps in language and mathematics. But to many teachers, principals, and educators, this promise reminded me of another promise of the minister, which has not yet been implemented.
Left unanswered
As early as last August, before the start of the school year, Shasha Bitton announced an additional budget of NIS 300 million to reduce gaps, which was supposed to provide a learning solution in the core subjects: language, mathematics, English and science.
However, as of today, four months before the end of the post-primary school year (middle and high schools), no such program has been presented and has not yet been budgeted.
Ministry of Education, Photo: Gideon Markowitz
In addition, Purim, Pesach (two-week vacation), Independence and Shavuot vacations will take up almost a month of school days, so the question arises as to how much time is left for work on a program, its publication, its implementation among teachers and its implementation in the field.
Principals and teachers complain that middle and high school students have not received a response to the gaps that have been created, nor a response according to age groups nor according to subjects such as mathematics or English.
"The high schools just didn't get anything, especially the ones that are in the most critical years," says a school principal with hundreds of students.
"We had to go to the authority and ask for money, and so did other authorities, but there are many authorities with low socio-economic status that do not have it, so in practice it only widened the gaps in the education system - all empty promises."
The situation is similar in the elementary schools as well, and no comprehensive plan has been presented.
Although the schools were instructed to reduce gaps, they were given very few tools and budgets for this purpose.
Some of them say that they used money from various programs to reinforce students - something that does not really give a real answer.
"It's like a band-aid"
"We have been given a few extra hours since the beginning of the year. This has been done mainly in favor of filling hours to overcome the shortage of teachers, but with the monetary value of these hours, which is the minimum wage, it is not possible to bring trained teachers to teach students mathematics or science. "The hours are not enough for anything. We still lack manpower and hours for teachers," they say.
Shasha Bitton, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Another veteran principal explained: "A few hours were given in favor of reducing gaps, but when a principal gets a school that has experienced severe damage to Corona 13 hours a month, it can not really reduce gaps on a large scale.
"I have to choose only those at the most critical level. The problem of gaps has not been solved, on the contrary. I think it has only deepened, and this is mainly reflected in the sixth grade, that last year, when they were in fifth grade, they sat alone at home and studied remotely. "And they are sent to middle schools with very large gaps."
According to her, there were several programs that gave lump sums of tens of thousands of shekels to each school, which had to address mainly the emotional-mental gaps: "In my opinion, the right and most effective thing is to increase the total standard hours of the school and set hours to reduce gaps. We can get a professional teacher who is committed to the system to the educational staff, otherwise it is very challenging to find teachers who will come to work a few hours for a small salary - certainly when it comes to teachers who are part of the permanent position. "
Engaged in reducing gaps
The Ministry of Education responded: "The Minister of Education will soon present the systemic plan to reduce the educational gaps and the budget allocated for the benefit of the subject. It will be clarified that from the beginning of the school year Libraries formed for that purpose. "
An emergency plan has been formulated
The ministry further stated that "with the entry of the Minister of Education into office, she stated that one of the main issues is the reduction of gaps, with special and immediate emphasis on the emotional and social aspect. NIS 45,000 to NIS 90,000 were allocated, and the upper divisions an average of NIS 20,000. "
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