Tonight (Sunday), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the extension of the school year until the end of July, for all age groups.
In a statement from the Ministry of Education, the Prime Minister said: "The gradual reopening of studies will take place in the coming days in yellow and green cities for grades 7-10. The minister of education and I are also taking steps to fill in the gaps in the curriculum by he repeated lockdowns.”
“We must give children the opportunity for what they have missed. We will take care of the teachers' rights as well; I, along with the ministers of education and finance, take full responsibility to see that they are paid.”
“We will bring another 36 million vaccines in the coming year, enough to re-vaccinate the entire population twice. The Purim parties that we saw are unacceptable, compromising everything we have worked for over the last few months.”
On the Exceptions Committee and the criticism against it, the Prime Minister said that "this is a professional committee of government officials. We will act against people who break the law and bypass it. The committee works in a professional manner, with no discrimination between Haredi and secular.”
Education Minister Yoav Galant presented his plan on the matter: “Today, we begin a four-part plan to close gaps in the curriculum. The program will be available to form kindergarten to 11th grade. In July, most of the effort will be focused on closing the gaps in mathematics, English, language and science, and the emotional effects of being in lockdown. "
The chairman of the teachers' union, Ran Erez, said ahead of Netanyahu's announcement that "the school year in post-primary education will end on June 20. Teachers who want to fill in the gaps will be able to teach in July, for a full fee. "
The Secretary of the Teachers Union, Yaffa Ben-David, said that the current school year will end as planned: "Following the recent publications on the extension of studies into July - I would like to clarify that the position of the Teachers' Union has not changed: The school year will end as planned on Wednesday 30.6.2021.”
"The best solution is for the state to implement the summer school program, as it has done successfully in previous years. The teachers' union will continue to care for and preserve the rights of teaching staff," Ben-David added.
The national parents’ association last week petitioned the Supreme Court to order the government to immediately reinstate frontal classes for grades 7-11. In the petition, the parents claimed that "the government continues to harm students by keeping them out of school. This harm has been professionally proven in all areas of life, health, mental, educational, social and more.”
The petition further states that "the decision-makers themselves, headed by the Minister of Education, believed that it was right to open the schools for 7th-10th grade students as well, but in the end a decision was made, arbitrarily, without weighing the facts, unreasonably and with serious and disproportionate harm. There are no scientific, epidemiological, medical or other justifications that can justify the continued harm to these children, who were completely abandoned during the crisis."
"The cumulative damage to the future generation of the state is not taken into account when making decisions, is not considered and even worse - the data on the lockdown’s effects indicate that severe damage has been done to the next generation.”