MK Yakov Margi (Shas), who heads the Knesset's Education Committee, suggested Education Minister Rabbi Rafi Peretz (Yamin) resign from his position.
During the annual conference held by the Union of Educational Directors in local authorities, Margi said that Rabbi Peretz is "a dear man who came to save the party in Round A, but afterwards it would have been proper for him to resign. He is paying heavy personal prices on the one hand, and he says things that do not need to be said on the other."
"I hope and pray that a brave education minister will be chosen - someone who has seen battles and does not take credit, who will bring the State of Israel an advanced and strong education system."
Margi also said that the repeated elections will cost Israel in the coming years.
"The direct damage is almost two billion shekel, but the indirect damage is long-term and will take several years to fix," he explained.
Regarding the quality of education, he added: "I would raise the requirements to study teaching, and raise the salary accordingly. That's the only way we'll succeed in raising the respect for the teaching occupation. It will bring new and good people to the teaching occupation. Instead of running to the Silicon Valley, people will want to study education and lead the next generation."
"I await the day when a high school diploma will be more significant. That can happen only when we stop evaluating [people] by all sorts of fake entitlement percentages. Every good principal can lead his school to succeed in the matriculation exams. That doesn't mean anything. I met a council which is always at the top of the list of [how many students] receive a diploma, but most of those students don't continue in academia, so why does the diploma help them? The question is what they do afterwards. Not just swallowing material and spitting it back out on the test and then forgetting it, but really bringing a good educational model. There's a lot of money in the education system. It's not certain that we're seeing results that are in line with the investment."