A request Tuesday by the Education Ministry to cut the budget for Hebrew-language classes for new adult immigrant (ulpanim) was blocked Tuesday by Absorption Minister Yaakov Edry.

The Education Ministry's director-general, Shlomit Amichai, told the Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs that the ministry "is committee first and foremost to the children studying in schools."

Edry sent an urgent letter to Education Minister Yuli Tamir, pointing out that Hebrew classes are a basic essential for and adult immigrant to find a job and integrate into Israeli society, "a necessity that the state must grant to them in the framework of their absorption."