In a feeble humble voice, this past weekend about half a million students went on vacation. The Ministry of Education's subsidized summer camps, officially known as the "School of the Great Vacation", have been successfully completed for the tenth year.
As every year, this year as well, the most transparent population in Israel – young parents of young children – voted with their feet: the vast majority of students, about 80 per cent, enrolled in summer camps.
In previous years, about 75 per cent of pupils were enrolled, and during the tough and fearful Covid-60 period, more than half of the pupils – <> per cent – were enrolled.
Six weeks of vacation are ahead of us, not including the holiday break. The parents of kindergarten and elementary children know at least that thanks to the agreement of Lieberman and Yaffa Ben David, the traditional strike of September 1 will be called off this year. But not the widower of Israel: Ran Erez, chairman of the teachers' union, has been shouting in his throat for weeks that without an increase in teachers' salaries in secondary education, it is worthwhile to prepare for a long strike. We haven't been afraid of a strike like that since... Last year, with the exact same threats.
Soaring inflation has made the already expensive summer vacation even more expensive, while parents squeeze vacation days to the fullest, frantically zigzagging between work and children and bringing babysitting solutions from the guren and the winery when there really is no choice. The state, which insisted on owning the education system, is forcing parents (and especially, as always, mothers) to pay for its incompetence in harming their careers and pockets. Even if the school year starts as usual, the education system will come to it with its tongue out, bleeding manpower.
But the government, the media and the public are almost all busy with other things. What is quality education and productivity versus the end of democracy? The various disruptive protests make sure that even during the summer we will not, God forbid, be a functioning state. Media outlets compete to inflate the number of demonstrators, interviews with Ehud Olmert and Shikma Bressler, and marginal items from Netanyahu's trial. The government is busy to the brim with maintaining its stability and passing the reform. To his credit, Education Minister Kish is not interviewing as a former combat pilot, he stands like a wall in the face of Ran Erez's threats, and announced his plan to expand the "School of the Great Freedom" back in February.
And apropos quiche. Parents of special education children are protesting that the special education school day be shortened from 16:45 p.m. to 16 p.m. My eyes didn't narrow on them. It is impossible to compare the effort involved in raising a "normal" child, and the assistance that the parents need, to raising a special child. Most special education parents also have at least one child in regular education, so we're all in the same boat. At the same time, while the entire system is crying out for oxygen and budgets, it's good to remember that regular school children finish school around 00:13 p.m. The number of students in special education has more or less doubled since 30, while the budget tripled. The heavy cuts are still being made in the "regular" educational institutions and harm all Israeli children.
But we don't have to give our government excuses, we need to demand results from it. Almost every summer there is a large, comprehensive event that requires government attention. The legal reform, the black flag protests, the coronavirus, the security situation, the military operation. This is always the "most important" event on the agenda that cannot be neglected, and we look with leniency at elected officials, who do not have time to promote beneficial policies in their offices. Enough with that. Ministers need to understand that their political future depends on their ability to bring about change for the better in the field they are responsible for.
Minister Kisch must know that his public status will be derived from the fact that at the end of his term the education system will be more efficient and more suited to the conduct of the economy. This arrangement, according to which elected officials are sent by the public in order to improve the lives of all citizens of the country? More important to democracy is even the embezzlement of reasonableness.
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