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The teachers will demonstrate in the evening, classes will end at 13:00 | Israel today

2022-05-30T04:31:31.421Z


Teachers will demonstrate in protest of stuck negotiations • Kindergartens, schools and special education will end early • Minister of Finance demands change of holiday schedule and salary according to excellence • Minister of Education threatens: "Only I set policy, I will vote against the state budget"


Negotiations on teachers' salaries lead to an exchange of accusations in the government.

Thousands of teachers from the Teachers 'Union (led by Yaffa Ben-David) are expected to demonstrate this evening (Monday) in the Tel Aviv Museum plaza, in protest of teachers' salaries and the stuck negotiations with the Ministry of Finance - which is currently refusing to accept their demands.

The teachers' demonstration will take place at 18:00, but studies in the entire education system (except high schools) will end at 13:00 - including in special education.

Officially, the move is intended to allow all teaching staff to make it to the demonstration organized by the teachers' union.

However, the move has drawn resentment from parents, especially around shortening the school day in special education.

The school year in kindergartens and elementary schools will end in exactly one month (30.6) and then there are two months of vacation.

These could be three nerve-wracking months for parents, if the parties do not reach agreements and the start of the school year is in jeopardy.

Yesterday (Sunday), negotiations between the Teachers' Union and the Budget Division in the Ministry of Finance turned into a battle between Ministers Avigdor Lieberman (Finance) and Yifat Shasha Bitton (Education), who threatened not to vote in favor of the government budget.

To precede the demonstration of teaching staff, Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman convened a press conference yesterday in which he stated that he is in favor of raising teachers' salaries, but he made this conditional on some demands.

One of the requirements is the synchronization of the teachers' vacation days with the parents, so that the big vacation does not begin in July but in August and lasts for the Tishrei holidays (which are usually indicated in September).

The second thing the Treasury is demanding is raising salaries for beginning teachers and reducing the gap with veteran teachers.

Today, teachers 'salaries are determined only by years of seniority and rank, and now the Treasury wants to reward teachers' achievements and excellence, a step that means a drastic change in the way the education system operates.

Another requirement of the Treasury is that principals be allowed to fire bad teachers, who currently remain in the system because they are backed by the Teachers Union.



"Loves the job, but it does not reward" The



teachers who will come to the demonstration are Racheli Bazov Tzeiri (42), a physical education teacher from Netanya and the mother of three daughters.

According to her, she has been in the education system for 15 years, and has to work extra jobs to make a living.

"The rent is never enough, it barely covers half of the rent," she says.

"Ever since I can remember myself as a teacher I have been working in another job: I run birthday parties, formation parties and graduation parties. I'm already waiting for the day when I will only work one job, in the Ministry of Education, and that's it."

Today, a teacher's work week is 36 hours, low compared to most subjects (42 hours), but Racheli says the work does not end at school: "I love the children and the work, but it does not reward and does not reflect what we are supposed to get. The work does not "It ends at school, when you get home you have to talk to parents and sit on a plan. A teacher does not finish work when he gets home, he has other things to do."

Minister v Budget Division

Lieberman's conditions have shocked Education Minister Yifat Shasha Bitton, who is even threatening to vote against the state budget.

"The policy of the Ministry of Education is determined solely by the minister in charge," she said, attacking the finance minister. "The budget department is used to conducting a campaign of attrition and dragging its feet until September 1. This rotten scenario will not return."

Shasha Bitton clarified: "I will insist that the teachers' salary agreements include a significant improvement and appropriate remuneration according to an outline to be determined in full coordination with the Ministry of Education, otherwise the state budget will not pass."

The Minister of Finance presented his plan alongside the chairman of the national parents 'leadership, Mirom Schiff, and the president of the Manufacturers' Association and the chairman of the presidency of employers and businesses, Dr. Ron Tomer.

As stated, one of the demands of Finance Minister Lieberman is a change in the vacation schedule, and he claims it will not hurt the total vacation days of teachers.

This is a new demand that so far the Ministry of Finance has not presented to the Teachers' Federation.

It must be said that despite the firm words of Education Minister Yifat Shasha Bitton, she herself expressed herself as a supporter of her.

However, over the weekend, Yaffa Ben-David, secretary general of the Teachers' Union, said that such a thing would not happen and would not happen.

The Teachers' Union, on the other hand, claims that the low wages lead to the mass abandonment of teaching staff (kindergarten teachers, educators and teachers) that will make it difficult to open the next school year (5733), so they claim the demonstration is "to save the education system from collapse."

Disputes between the parties

The discussion of teachers' salaries is a complex issue, and each side presents data and arguments.

Thus, for example, in the teachers 'union, the low teachers' salaries and the shortage of teaching staff who abandon the education system or do not reach the system are intertwined.

However, the shortage of teachers, and certainly of "quality teachers" (who have studied the field of knowledge they teach such as mathematics, English, etc.) is an issue that has existed in each of the last few years, and arose before the start of each school year.

The State Comptroller even addressed this in an extensive report he wrote three years ago.

In addition, the teachers' union talks about teachers working 100% of the time and earning much less, but it must be said that a full-time teacher works 36 hours a week compared to most professions in the economy, where a work week is calculated on a 42-hour basis.

As for vacation days, teaching staff have more extreme vacation days, they do not work in July-August, do not work two weeks on Passover, nor on Sukkot or Hanukkah.

However, the profession is eroding, the classrooms are crowded and crowded relative to EU countries and wages are lower.

Teaching staff also have to deal with many discipline issues.




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Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2022-05-30

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