The Education Ministry submitted proposed legislation to the Knesset on Tuesday, compelling all teachers in Israel to be licensed - or else face up to a year in jail.
The proposal, a year in the making, stipulates that would-be teachers in Israel must pass a strict set of requirements, including an academic degree, a teacher's certificate, licensing tests, and a year in training.
Teaching Without a License Could Cost a Year in Prison
Teachers currently in the system will not be immediately subject to the new requirements. A new teacher, however, who teaches without a license will face an internal Education Ministry disciplinary committee, which - the new bill states - will be authorized to sentence him or her to a jail term of up to a year. A school that hires such a teacher will be fined.
Teachers are to be trained in groups of subject matter. For instance, math teachers will also be trained in computer science and engineering - and will not be able to teach subjects in which they were not trained. Similarly, teachers trained only for elementary schools will not be able to teach in high schools, and vice-versa.
Education Minister Yuli Tamir said, "This bill will place the discipline of teaching in its worthy place."
The Irgun Teachers Union thinks otherwise. "Junior high and high school teachers already must have a college degree, plus another year or two of supplementary studies," spokeswoman Keren Shaked told Arutz-7, "so I'm not sure what it comes to add. Perhaps this bill deals with elementary school teachers... The part about jail terms appears, on the surface, to be baseless."
A request for clarification from the Education Ministry has been submitted, and an answer has been promised "within hours."
Yossi Wasserman, chairman of Israel's other large teachers union, the Histadrut, said he would express his opinion after "our pedagogical committee and legal advisors study the bill."