The five-year plan is set to cost 6 billion shekels ($1.33 billion). Tamir presented the plan over the past few days to representatives of the teachers unions, local government, and higher education, and received their support. She will present it to the Cabinet and Prime Minister at the next Cabinet meeting this Sunday, and then intends to appoint teams to implement it.
An issue that has been widely raised in Israel in recent years is how to "enhance the status of teachers," in terms of both salaries and their standing among students and the general public. Tamir aims to address this by raising their starting salaries, making them equal to government engineers. In addition, she wishes to raise the quotas of early retirements, which would make room for some 2,000-3,000 teachers to be replaced by new ones.
Tamir feels that more emphasis must be placed on early diagnosis of learning disabilities, as well as socio-economic problems of many of the youth. She said she also hopes to institute the long school-day program in more towns in the coming years.
In addition, the Education Ministry plans a large-scale campaign to paint and refurbish some 900 schools around the country. The Finance Ministry has allocated 120 million shekels for this purpose, in addition to 20 million shekels of Education Ministry funds. The schools designated to be included in the program will be chosen based on three criteria: age of the building, number of students, and the socio-economic situation of the school population.
The latest annual report of the international Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that Israel is below average in its per-student education investment. The average annual investment in each pre-schooler around the world was $4,294, while in Israel it was only $3,363 (78%). For elementary school and high school students, the averages were $5,313 and $7,002, respectively, while in Israel the numbers were $4,770 (90%) and $5,767 (82%).
Israel was in 4th place in the world, however, in percentage of students completing high school - 82%, behind only the U.S., Japan and Germany.
An issue that has been widely raised in Israel in recent years is how to "enhance the status of teachers," in terms of both salaries and their standing among students and the general public. Tamir aims to address this by raising their starting salaries, making them equal to government engineers. In addition, she wishes to raise the quotas of early retirements, which would make room for some 2,000-3,000 teachers to be replaced by new ones.
Tamir feels that more emphasis must be placed on early diagnosis of learning disabilities, as well as socio-economic problems of many of the youth. She said she also hopes to institute the long school-day program in more towns in the coming years.
In addition, the Education Ministry plans a large-scale campaign to paint and refurbish some 900 schools around the country. The Finance Ministry has allocated 120 million shekels for this purpose, in addition to 20 million shekels of Education Ministry funds. The schools designated to be included in the program will be chosen based on three criteria: age of the building, number of students, and the socio-economic situation of the school population.
The latest annual report of the international Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that Israel is below average in its per-student education investment. The average annual investment in each pre-schooler around the world was $4,294, while in Israel it was only $3,363 (78%). For elementary school and high school students, the averages were $5,313 and $7,002, respectively, while in Israel the numbers were $4,770 (90%) and $5,767 (82%).
Israel was in 4th place in the world, however, in percentage of students completing high school - 82%, behind only the U.S., Japan and Germany.