Preschool (illustrative)
Preschool (illustrative)iStock

Keren Ohana-Ayus and Hanan Dagan, the heads of the Private Preschools Forum, said that 2,150 private preschools have closed since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.

Of those, 150 of them closed after preschools reopened. Forty percent of the affected preschools are in central Israel, while 35% are in the north and 25% are in the south.

"We are bleeding to death, and every day more preschools close," they said. "We expect the Finance Ministry to wake up and immediately transfer the compensation funds, as they promised in their agreement."

"Early childcare education is collapsing, we can't allow things to be dragged out further. If we don't receive what was promised to us, we will have no choice other than to shut the coming school year."

Many of the parents who sent to private preschools before the coronavirus outbreak have not yet sent their children back, and are not sure if they intend to. Some of these parents have not yet returned to work, while others have found alternative childcare solutions.

Israel has approximately 2,500 government-supervised daycares and preschools, and approximately 10,000 private daycares and preschools.