Preschool (illustrative)
Preschool (illustrative)Yonatan Sindel/Flash 90

The heads of the Private Preschools Forum, Hanan Dagan, Ruti Yonah, and attorney Keren Ohana Aios, on Thursday slammed Israel's Welfare Ministry.

"Sixty percent of preschool teachers did not reopen private preschools this morning, due to a lack of planning and administrative failures on the part of the Welfare Ministry," they said.

"The lack of certainty regarding what is permitted and what is prohibited with regards to return to routine has caused distress and confusion among preschool managers.

"The excessive bureaucracy, the unclear plans, the detailed regulations which are a million pages long, and differing and redundant messages delay the process of returning to normal."

According to them, many questions remain unanswered, such as whether preschool assistants from "red" areas can work in preschools located in "green" areas, and whether a child from an "orange" neighborhood can attend school if the school is located in a "green" area. Other questions include what happens if infection rates change overnight, and whether the public needs to check, on a daily basis, whether schools are open or not.

"When we search for information regarding whether we can open, the local authority sends the question to the Home Front Command, the Home Front Command sends the question to the Health Ministry, and the Health Ministry sends the question to the local authority," they added. "Everyone shifts the responsibility to someone else. Unforunately, despite the media declaring the long-awaited reopening of educational institutions, it's not clear to us what is happening, starting from this morning."