In the youth villages, budgets are tight, and the level of education is damaged: "in danger of collapse"

In their estimation, the youth villages suffer from a trailing budget gap of tens of millions of shekels.

The shortage leads to the pursuit of donations and quality instructors, and many compromises: "We have to rent out the children's rooms. Managers become pipers."

Ministry of Education: A team was established to examine the claims

Uri Sela

08/08/2022

Monday, 08 August 2022, 14:23 Updated: Wednesday, 10 August 2022, 14:23

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"It's either cut back or go out and collect donations."

Ben Shemen Youth Village (photo: official website, Aloma Meshulmi)

The youth villages manage the preparations for the upcoming school year in the reality of compromise.

The budget for the buildings is not enough - so we have to ask for more donations, the standards are missing - so the number of employees falls below the required number, the instructors' salaries are low - so the quality level and the duration of their work are lowered.

And in the end, the education of more than 11 thousand youths, many of whom come from extreme situations, is compromised.

The villages use harsher words.

"We are in danger of collapse," they wrote last week to the director general of the Ministry of Education. The plight is not new, but is getting worse: the last collective wage agreement was signed more than 20 years ago, prices are rising every year and especially in the last few months, and the budget is not updated accordingly. Now, They estimate that the gap from the budget they were supposed to receive from the Ministry of Education is about NIS 56 million - about 1.2 million for each of the 46 villages operating in Israel.

"The catastrophe is already at our gates," they emphasized in the letter they sent.

"We are downsizing," admitted the director of the Ben Shemen Youth Village, Ilana Tishler.

Philanthropy has always been a part of youth villages, but never at this level.

Today I also turn to small things, like pastries from Roldin."

More about the education system

• The Ministry of Education was flexible: they lowered the salary requirement to NIS 9,500 for a beginning teacher

"I have colleagues who will say 'I will take whoever comes'"

The administrators see the Ministry of Education mobilizing for the teachers' salary fight, and feel that they have been left behind.

For five years, they receive promises of a new wage agreement, and stay only with them.

"The salary paid by the state to a beginning instructor is around NIS 6,000," she said.

"We are not an organization or the teachers union, we are not a strong force in negotiations that makes someone fight over the salary agreements, and they are not updated. All the recent heads of the unions took pictures with us, smiled and promised, and nothing moved."

In their estimation, more than a hundred guides are missing to start the year properly.

Tishler is still looking for an instructor or two to join in the coming year.

"Other places lack more. I have colleagues who will say 'I'll take whoever comes.'"

The director of the Meir Shafia Youth Village, Yoram Panias, agrees with her.

"There is a drama going on in the salary. We receive from the Ministry of Education the slimmest salary profile available, the salary of an instructor without experience, which is close to the minimum wage. If I want an instructor with a degree and experience, I absorb the difference," he said.

"Open the recruitment calendar and see that everyone is looking for instructors. Beyond money, the crisis is a value one. People don't want to work in teaching and training. What happens is that you compromise and get less good instructors."

According to him, "Today we are meeting candidates and they are interviewing us. We are already ready to compromise that there will only be two years left, but at the moment there is no youth village that does not change instructors during the year. By the time the youth present themselves to the staff - the instructor gets up and leaves, and does not wait in line with others. The price can be A rift in the group and dropping out of children."

The youth villages suffer from a cumulative budget deficit.

Sde Hamed Youth Village (Photo: Dror Einav)

Towards the end of the school year Panias realized that he was short of six instructors.

Ten candidates in total offered themselves.

"I wasn't ready to accept all of them. I realized that the pool of instructors was over, so I turned to the children who finished 12th grade with us and suggested they return to work.

"Four of the new instructors are like that," he admitted.

"Prices are rising and we have to pay them with the same budget," he continued. "The rest of the money comes from donations, and there are youth villages that don't manage to get them.

Some of the bodies also condition the donation on the construction of a building or a soccer field that will be named after them.

We are asking the Ministry of Education to compare the donations, a condition sometimes imposed by the donors themselves, and they say that they are not interested."

The youth villages and boarding schools are budgeted by the Ministry of Education with a built-in deficit - 85% of the budget required to support each child, according to a key established in "Sel Laor" in the 1970s.

Two decades later, it was decided to fill the gap for the guided youth villages, those that meet various requirements of the Ministry of Education, through an additional budget called the "Guidedness Regulation".

However, it has remained frozen since 2018, which leads to a cumulative budget deficit.

"The calculation of the personnel budget is very low. This does not make it possible to pay a proper salary to the instructors, and those who come are not exactly the best team," explained Emanuel Gruper, Professor of Education at the Ono Academic College.

According to a study he conducted on the subject, "40% of them do not continue to a second year. The instructors who receive academic training are not ready to work in youth villages because of the working conditions. In my estimation, there is a 10-20% shortage in each village."

"We need to change the approach"

The problematic solutions to the lack of which the managers tell him are well known to him.

"Administrators who are supposed to be educators are starting to become scoundrels who run after money. Sometimes it comes at the expense of the children, when they have to rent rooms on Saturdays and holidays. You want to give the child a sense of home, but when he goes on vacation you tell him to reset all his things because other people will live him in the room," he said.

He concluded: "The perception needs to be changed. The teachers claim that their salary is not worthy, but that of the boarding school staff is even worse."

The Ministry of Education stated that "a team has been established to examine the claims made regarding the budget gaps. Also, as part of the 2023 budget discussions, the Ministry raised the issue of updating the rate of the student's maintenance fee at the boarding school. With the resumption of discussions for the next budget, the Ministry will raise the issue again."

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