In the wake of the establishment of new directives to prevent discrimination in the Askenazi seminars (haredi high schools) for girls, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri stated Tuesday that seminars which flout the rules will lose all of their budgetary allocations and will not be able to have them restored.
"The new directives require that each 8th grade pupil going on summer vacation knows exactly where she is to continue her schooling," said Deri in a Radio Kol Hai interview. "We will save parents and children many tears."
Deri added that there will be harsh new sanctions against seminars which do not conform with the new rules. He said that he does not ignore the possibility that some seminars will attempt to circumvent the rules, "but according to the new directives a non-conforming institution will not receive funds retroactively even if the problem is solved later on."
On Monday Education Minister Bennett and Interior Minister Deri issued a joint statement regarding the directives approved to prevent the discrimination against Sephardi girls in the haredi educational system.
Deri stated the main directives, including holding entrance examinations earlier in the school year, a requirement to record explanations for rejections and the empowerment of an Education Ministry appeals committee.
"No girl will be rejected on ethnic grounds," said Bennett and praised Deri and Education Committee head Yaakov Margi for their participation in the process. Deri said that "this is the most important topic for us, we worked on the new directives for a long time. Minister Bennett joined the efforts once he entered his current position."