In preparing this article, we encountered a lot of fear on the part of teachers, principals and managers. The content of the things was repeated, as were quite a few closed groups on the net where they talk freely. Only a few agreed to speak to the newspaper, and only anonymously. The reason: a great fear that if they identify themselves they will be swallowed by their supervisor.
869 inspectors work in the Ministry of Education.
They are the ones who decide on the placement of the teachers, on the educational content, and almost every decision of a school principal goes through them.
The power they have means that in practice they are the ones who run the education system.
A series of testimonies, which are also approved by the Ministry of Education, show that among those inspectors there are those who abuse their power and harm the system and its employees.
In almost every decision
Each district in the Ministry of Education has an inspector, and under him are inspectors of the kindergartens and schools.
In addition, there are also supervisors of the subjects (MPMRs) who are responsible for the curricula. The headquarters of the Ministry of Education alone employs 239 supervisors. 114 supervisors are employed in the North District, 102 in the Center District and a similar number in the Tel Aviv District.
The teachers are frustrated, photo: Getty Images
In fact, the supervisor is involved in almost every pedagogical or administrative decision of the school principal.
Apart from that, the supervisors are responsible for the personnel issue - they are the authority that approves the transfer of a kindergarten teacher or teacher to another kindergarten, another school or another authority.
Precisely now, when the shortage of teaching staff is so severe, claims are being made by teaching staff that the supervisors are paralyzing the system, preventing the transfer of teachers to other schools, or not approving job increases.
"The inspectors run the system, some of them are drunk with power, and what motivates them is not the good of the system or the good of the students, but their personal good," testifies Gali (pseudonym), a teacher at an elementary school in the south of the country.
According to her, "The supervisors decide who will work and where - and if not, you will stay at home. They like submissive teachers. There are many supervisors who 'grab the principal by the neck' and control her, others give full support to the principal even when she makes a mistake."
Ultimatums
Gali is a respected teacher who worked for a decade at a school she loved.
The newly arrived supervisor did not like the principal's management style and decided to set various ultimatums: "In the end the principal had to leave," says Gali.
The feeling is that female supervisors have power intoxication.
A teacher at the school, photo: Getty Images
"I went on a sabbatical and at the end of it I asked to return to another school where I had a connection with the principal. The supervisor simply did not agree. The message was: stay under me or stay at home. She preferred to prevent me from working at another school that had a shortage and not allow me to move to work there under a supervisor Otherwise. I've heard countless stories like mine, of teachers who ultimately decided to leave the education system because of female inspectors."
According to her, "Even the semantics of the word 'inspector' irritates me. If managers and teachers have to be supervised, it means that they are not trusted. A supervisor should chart a path, not control."
Many teaching staff feel that there are supervisors who behave with force and bullying.
The "Israel Today" system received dozens of complaints, and many others are written anonymously in groups of teachers.
Officials in the Ministry of Education we spoke with also testify that there are inspectors "whose urine has gone to their heads".
Many teaching staff, including principals, kindergarteners, teachers and even parents, are afraid to go against them.
In the Public Inquiries Division, only ten complaints against supervisors were submitted in the last three years.
These are four complaints in the last school year, 2021, and three more complaints in each of the years 2019-2020.
The kindergartener is waiting for placement, photo: Getty Images
Michal (pseudonym) has been a kindergarten teacher for eight years who has not yet received a placement for the coming year, and according to her the supervisor has not even met her: "Every year they wait with me until the last moment and it hurts and hurts. Neither the supervisor nor the instructors bothered to meet me. They didn't tell me why there was no I have a regular kindergarten, and I haven't been told that I'm a bad kindergartner either. The feeling is that the supervisors have a free hand to do whatever they want with the kindergartners.
"A supervisor can make a kindergartener's life miserable, and they did that to me. She can decide that she does not grant tenure or a standard, or decide to remove a kindergartener from her kindergarten and give it to another kindergartener. The considerations of some of them are tainted with all kinds of interests, it all depends on how much the supervisor likes You or if you are connected - and not if you are a good professional."
Could it be that they are influenced by the parents?
"There are supervisors who work only to please the parents in the kindergarten. They want peace and don't want to get into a confrontation with them, even if the kindergarten teacher is right. There are cases when the supervisor would prefer to transfer the kindergarten teacher from her position."
Minister of Education Shasha Biton.
Will the cases be investigated?, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Supervisors are often veterans in the system, the threshold requirements to become a supervisor are a master's degree and a pedagogical education, along with at least seven years of experience in the various fields of education as a teacher or manager.
The role of the inspector is also to receive complaints from parents against the conduct of the school, but there are inspectors who sweep the problems under the carpet for fear that it will bring a bad name to the institutions they signed.
In fact, some of them back up administrators and do not handle parents' complaints.
The Ministry of Education responds
The Ministry of Education stated in response: "As many as there are individual cases that apparently show arbitrary and offensive conduct by supervisors, we will be happy to receive the details in order to check them and deal with them accordingly.
"The granting of tenure to teaching staff is done in accordance with the professional opinions of the school principals and in accordance with the procedures established for this matter. Also, the placement of those teaching staff by the supervisors is done in accordance with the district and municipal needs map to ensure equal opportunities for all educational institutions."
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