MK Zevulun Orlev (Jewish Home), Head of the Knesset's Education Committee, called upon the teachers' unions, mayors and parents' councils nationwide to avoid strikes at the commencement of the new school year on Wednesday.

"We will be able to work out all of the arguments, the problems and the disagreements after the holidays,” Orlev said. “As one whose job it is to criticize the system, [I say that] it is only right to forget the complaints for one day a year, to salute and give backing and support to the most important system in the country.”]

Orlev noted that teachers' wages in Israel are 20 percent lower than the average in the OECD states,” Orlev said. “The classrooms are very crowded, the number of study hours is low, and despite all of the difficulties, the system is improving,” he said. “If Israel's investment in the educational system were to be even one percent higher than in developed countries, I have no doubt that we could be a light unto the nations.”

The teachers and the supervisors, he said, must believe in themselves and in their mission, and thus cause education to eventually top the national agenda.