The Ministry of Education cut the budget for the "Give Five in Math" program, which was a flagship program of the ministry and aims to increase the number of students taking five units of math.
Ministry of Education documents indicate that the program's budget was cut from tens of millions of shekels to only NIS 10 million. In addition, the reinforcement hours provided as part of the program were also taken from schools. The Education Ministry claims that the program has been transferred to the LPN resource management system, which means that it is now up to the choice of the principals, who are not obligated to choose it.
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The person whose name was a signatory to the program, which succeeded in doubling the number of those taking the exams by five units, is former Prime Minister and Education Minister Naftali Bennett. After he took issue with the cut, Minister Yoav Kisch replied that the cut had been made during his time as prime minister. His predecessor in the ministry, Yifat Shasha Biton, said that when she was a minister, "the program was budgeted" and that it was damaged in the last budget.
As reported in Israel Hayom, while the Ministry of Education's budget has increased overall due to the natural growth of the education system, it includes significant cuts in all of the Ministry's important flagship programs.
Naftali Bennett. The flagship program he led as Minister of Education, photo: Amit Shab
The result: damage to the school of the Great Vacation, funding a long school day in weaker cities, programs for reinforcement hours for matriculation, and more.
The Education Ministry said: "Contrary to the erroneous report, the ministry did not cancel the budget, but transferred the budget earmarked for it to LPN about two years ago so that the school principals could choose and adapt the teaching method to the students."
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