The Big Felafel

Israel’s education system: 3 hours a day is sufficient

As most people returned to a normal workweek after the never ending Sukkot holiday, the teachers in my “little sister“‘s school in Jerusalem have decided that 3 hours a day for the next 3 months will give kids a decent education. You guessed it, the teachers are on strike again leaving kids to figure out what to do past 11am.

This is eerily similar to what happened during Pesach (Passover) time, when vacation from school extended for another 3 weeks, leaving my little sister again with nothing to do for well over a month. Is this really happening? Who will want to move to Israel and raise their children in a place where school is only an afterthought, an optional activity during the day.

I’ve heard that teachers earn a salary that can’t possibly afford them housing and food, something like 2-3,000 shekels a month – 24,000-36,000 shekels a year, less than $9,000 a year!!!!! The average salary in Israel is somewhere around 7,000 shekels a month and teachers are making less than half!

And here’s what the Finance Minister has to say, in true Israeli fashion of not wanting to give in, “there would be no extra money for teachers… since a reform agreement had already signed with the Ministry of Education, there was no room for additional budgets”.

I’m sorry, but a cute owl with a green genie lamp (?) in your logo just isn’t going to cut it.