The precarious state of Israel's state education system was discussed today (Monday) at the first-ever conference of chairmen of the institutional parent leaderships in Israel, organized by the national parent leadership, and held in the Valley in Kfar Saba.
Chairman of the National Parents' Leadership, Mirom Schiff, said during the discussion that "there is a feeling among the public that there is no one left to take care of state education. Calls on the Minister of Education to establish a public council to stabilize state education."
Parents' demonstration in front of the Knesset (archive), photo: Dudi Vaknin,
Schiff, chairman of the parents' leadership, added: "We are all troubled by a series of issues such as violence and boycotts, the distribution of the state budget, the sanctions imposed by the teachers' union, the shortage of kindergarten teachers, and most importantly how to make the education system a better system."
About a week ago, Israel Hayom reported that experts and sources in the education system had warned that the state budget for 2023-2024 is expected to eliminate state education. According to the sources, "removing the requirement for core education and increasing Haredi education budgets will change the world order."
State education is in danger,
According to them, the new budgeting model is liable to lead to an absurd situation in which entire groups – usually powerful and wealthy populations – will seek to withdraw from state education in favor of private institutions, and demand full funding from the state for institutions that are not supervised on the basis of Haredi precedent. Such a situation is liable to turn the state Hebrew education system, the main flagship of Israel's education system, into a more limited and severely weakened stream.
Average annual budgeting per student from the state, photo: info, photo: info
Schiff also addressed the teachers' union's sanctions, saying: "We are all in favor of teachers receiving higher wages, and I call from here on the Minister of Education and the Minister of Finance and Ran Erez - end the negotiations but, and the grief is great, we cannot continue to harm the students. This school year was ruined for high school students with no trips and no grades. We are not prepared for the next school year to be disrupted or for the graduation ceremonies of the 12th grade to be canceled."
Regarding the issue of the shortage of kindergarten teachers, Schiff said: "We should all be concerned about the huge shortage of kindergarten teachers. The issue should be on the agenda of the government, which will provide a solution. On the issue of parental payments, Schiff said: "We parents expect the government to meet its longstanding obligations and reduce parental payments. I hope that the education minister will fund the trips, or some of them, by next year."
He added: "We have all experienced and are seeing violence and boycotts on a large scale since the end of the coronavirus, and I hope that we will embark on a program that will reduce the phenomenon by integrating the Ministry of Education, parents and students."
Rafi Sa'ar, mayor of Kfar Saba, said: "The education system has suffered very badly due to lack of governance. The only place where there was sanity was the local government and parental leadership, and that could lead education forward. I call for full partnership of all systems."
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