The terms of employment of the teachers in the Hebrew learning studios of the Ministry of Education will be discussed today in the Education, Culture and Sports Committee of the Knesset, following the growing shortage of them due to the great wave of immigration, mainly from Russia and Ukraine, which created a widespread demand for studios for adults.
At the beginning of the month, we published that the Ministry of Education deducted from the salary of the studio teachers the 500 shekels they received in December, because they were not included in the new salary agreement signed between the state and the teachers union, which included this salary increase.
According to a report by the Knesset's Research and Information Center that reached Israel Hayom, a beginning teacher with a bachelor's degree earns 2,967 NIS a month for a full-time position, and 6,336 NIS after 36 years of experience. A teacher with a master's degree receives a maximum salary of 6,789 NIS a month, and his salary of a teacher with a third degree is NIS 7,186.To this are added training and other rewards, as well as a monthly salary increase of NIS 563.
This is a very low salary paid to studio teachers, who are not included in the New Horizon reform, and officials in the field report that teachers leave because of this every year - about 22% of teachers, according to the officials' estimates.
An immediate solution is needed
In 2022, 74,400 new immigrants immigrated to Israel, most of them from Russia and Ukraine.
As a result, the Ministry of Immigration doubled the budget for the aid vouchers given to immigrants who apply to study Hebrew in private studios, due to a lack of space in the Ministry of Education's studios - and the plight in these still remains, due to the lack of teachers.
The Knesset report shows that in 2022, 24,400 students studied in 84 studios - 50% more than in previous years - and 533 teachers were employed in them. However, as of this month, 88 teachers are missing to provide an adequate response to 3,677 new immigrants who are still waiting for studies in studios.
Due to this, an absurd situation has arisen, according to which if an immigrant is forced to wait for a place in the studios and begins his studies after his first year in Israel, he is entitled to an exemption from tuition fees only - but not to financing and living or to guaranteed income during his studies at the studio, as he is entitled to in the acceptance basket, and therefore finds himself subject to under economic pressures and even with difficulty integrating into employment, due to language differences.
Suzy Atar, deputy director of the Gordon studio in Tel Aviv and a member of the studio teachers' representation, pointed out the inverse ratio between the number of teachers and the number of students in the last two years.
According to her, "while the number of immigrants who studied in 2022 is 10,000 greater than the number of immigrants who studied in 2021, the number of teachers actually decreased. That is, it is not enough that the teachers have to make do with extremely low salaries, they face an unreasonable load in classes that are full to capacity." .
According to her, "the data of the study speak for themselves, and confirm all our claims about the injustice due to our deviation from the salary agreements of the Ministry of Education. It is also worth considering the figure describing the maximum salary for a teaching employee after 36 years of service in the studio (6,336 NIS) compared to a New Horizon teacher with 36 years of seniority, whose maximum salary reaches NIS 16,886."
According to MK Yosef Tayeb, chairman of the Education, Culture and Sports Committee, "the terms of employment of the Hebrew teachers in the studios should be improved, preferably one hour earlier. This is not only for their sake, but also and especially for the immigrants, who are the first to be affected by the lack of teachers."
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