Illustrative
IllustrativeFlash90

Education Minister Yifat Shasha Biton has once again promised to implement a new program designed to “close the gaps” in the education system – however, according to a new report in the Israel Hayom newspaper, with just four months to go until the end of the academic year, a comprehensive plan to do just that has yet to be implemented.

Shasha Biton made the first promise of its kind back in August, before the current academic year began; since then, the fifth wave of the coronavirus epidemic broke, leaving even more students behind, mainly due to strict quarantine requirements for those infected and others who had been in their proximity. This week, Shasha Biton promised that right after the Pesach (Passover) break, an “additional” program would be launched, focusing on closing gaps in languages, mathematics, and other core studies. However, according to Israel Hayom, the funding Shasha Biton announced for the plan she described in August – some 300 million shekels – has yet to be budgeted by the government, leaving parents and teachers alike frustrated and wary of believing the Education Minister’s latest promise.

Furthermore, the upcoming festivals of Purim, Pesach, and Shavuot combined, along with Independence Day, amount to around a month of vacation days, leaving little time for any program to make its impact felt.

“High school students aren’t receiving anything from the government,” said one principal of an institution with hundreds of students enrolled. “They’re in the most critical years of their studies, and for everything we need, we have to go begging for funds to the local authorities. That’s all very well for schools in areas where local authorities have the money available, but in areas that are socio-economically disadvantaged, the funding is simply not available and all the government is supplying are empty promises.”