The Teachers Organization union is expected to announce that Israeli high schools will not start the school year on September 1, Kan News reported.
The strike is expected to be announced Tuesday.
According to the report, negotiations have been ongoing throughout the past month, between the Finance and Education Ministries and the Teachers Organization. However, thus far the Finance Ministry has refused to demands of the union's chairman, Ran Erez.
On Monday night, Erez spoke with the official in charge of salaries in the Finance Ministry, but the Ministry has no intention of agreeing to the teachers' demands.
Among the demands are a change to the matriculation reform; approval of a second day off each week in addition to Friday, as part of the move to a five-day school week; five hours of "paperwork time" at home, instead of in the teachers' room, as part of the transition to a five-day work week; and negotiations on salaries, which they are willing to wait for until an agreement is signed with the Israel Teachers Union.
In an educational reform in the early 2000s, teachers' salaries rose in exchange for both "paperwork hours" and "private lessons" hours, all of which must be done at school. The "private lessons" hours offer teachers the opportunity to pull up to five weak students out of other classes for remedial lessons, while the "paperwork hours" were intended to allow teachers to do some of their homework in school instead of at home. However, all of these additional hours must be done in the school itself, lengthening the teachers' workday and lowering their per-hour pay. Now, with the expected move to a five-day school week, these additional hours will still need to be done in school itself, thereby further extending the hours a teacher is required to be in school each day.
Last month, the Education Ministry reported that nearly 6,000 teachers and preschool teachers are needed ahead of the new school year - including about 1,500 homeroom teachers.