Ran Erez announces a strike, February 3, 2023 (teachers' organization)
Hundreds of thousands of students and children will stay at home on Thursday following a widespread strike in the education system.
The high schools and kindergartens will not operate, and some elementary and middle schools will end the school day at 11:45.
The director general of the Ministry of Education, Assaf Tselal, is expected to soon publish a letter that will offer an outline for easing the disruptions.
The local government announced yesterday (Monday) a strike in an attempt to advance its demands with the Ministry of Finance. These include, among other things, a new salary agreement for assistants and high school teachers, completing shortages in classrooms, transportation students and special education and the cancellation of the property tax fund. "The local government is united and determined," clarified the chairman of the local government center Haim Bibs after a meeting of 80 heads of authorities where the demands were presented.
"After months of procrastination and unwillingness to listen, it is impossible to put these issues on the agenda."
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai added that the heads of the authorities should use their power to "stand up to the central government and say our words".
The high schools will join the strike (Photo: Flash 90, Avshalom Sassooni)
Following the decision, the teachers' organization announced that it would join the strike.
A previous strike was held in high schools at the beginning of this month due to a lack of progress in negotiations with the Ministry of Finance. The goal set by the organization's chairman, Ran Erez, is a salary of 12,000 shekels for a beginning teacher, which is 3,000 shekels higher than the salary of elementary and middle school teachers who are members of the Teachers' Union that was agreed upon last year .
The current strike is being held in the midst of winter graduations.
"We are entering a crazy period in terms of exams, the strikes are hurting the preparation for them and the academic sequence," said Itai Kobi, an 11th grade student in Kiryat Yam. "It puts pressure on us.
We do enjoy the day off, but it's hard to study on a day like this.
Now is the 'money time' to invest in learning in order to succeed and get good final grades." He noted that "the demands of the teachers are correct, at least in part, but they come at the expense of the students."
The kindergartens will not operate either.
"The kindergarten teachers will attend the kindergartens, but they will not accept children, since they are not allowed to open the kindergartens without assistants," announced the Teachers' Union.
The special education kindergartens will be excluded from the strike and will work as usual.
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The kindergarteners will come, the assistants will not.
Kindergarten (Photo: Flash 90, Michael Giladi)
The director general of the Ministry of Education wrote this morning that the disruptions will also reach the elementary and middle schools, which will end on Thursday earlier than usual or will switch to home learning if the principal chooses to do so and receives the approval of the district director. The reason for this, according to the letter he sent to the district directors in the ministry, is the lack of cleaning workers. The strike of the local government center means that the shell workers - security guards, cleaners, secretaries, etc. - employed by the local authorities will not come to the schools. According to the Secretary General of the Teachers' Union, Yaffe Ben
David, they are interested in opening the elementary and middle schools, but in the absence of Security guards they won't be able to do that.
"In order not to make it difficult, we were also willing to absorb the fact that there is no secretary, head of house, and we would open the school until 12:00," she said.
"But since there will be no security guards, we will not be able to open the schools in the whole country. Except for special education, unless they reach agreements."
They will not be able to open due to the lack of security guards.
A classroom in an elementary school (Photo: Flash 90, David Cohen)
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Some municipalities have announced that the elementary schools will work as usual, since the cleaning workers are part of an external contractor company.
Meanwhile, the parents remain confused.
"Here in Givatayim, they said they would learn as usual and in most of the country it will be like that," said Sigal Spitz Toledano, chairman of the national parent-led Kindergarten Committee and a mother of four children. "The local government has an interest in showing the mess.
Despite the identification with the issues Bibbs raised, we oppose strikes.
Turning children into intolerable tools.
They talk about the parents, whether they will go to work or not, but the main victims are the children.
Every Monday and Thursday they blow their minds."
"They don't make an effort to find another solution. Where are all the mayors? They went to the streets and stood with the auxiliaries in the demonstrations. When did we see Biebs standing with signs under the finance or government offices? Sitting behind the keyboard and deciding on a shutdown," she charged.
"As a mother, I experience the chaos in the settings up close. For parents who have to go to work, this puts great financial pressure, for some of them losing a day of work is a heavy blow. The State of Israel underestimates preschool age."
Like Kobe, she clarified that under the leadership of the parents, they agree with the demands for new wage agreements.
"The status of assistants on the floor. We pay a price for that too - those who are in some of the kindergartens are not worthy. But if we talk in another two months we will probably find out that nothing has changed."
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Haim Biebs