Education minister: Plan to return students to school 'won't be perfect'

Education Minister Yoav Gallant said that the plan will focus on creating smaller classrooms and learning from home when possible.

By TOBIAS SIEGAL
Yoav Galant at cabinet meeting on March 17th, 2019 (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Yoav Galant at cabinet meeting on March 17th, 2019
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Education Minister Yoav Gallant presented on Thursday during a press conference the ministry’s plan for getting Israel’s education system back on track, as the coronavirus pandemic has challenged its traditional format and has caused much uncertainty regarding the next school year.
Referring to different strategies that will allow the return of Israel’s students to school, Gallant said that the plan will focus on creating smaller classrooms and learning from home when possible.
“Learning will be done from home or in classrooms of 18 students... We’ve set guidelines, but we want the process to be as flexible as possible in order for special populations to be able to receive special treatment,” Gallant said.
As part of the suggested plan, grades 3 and 4 classrooms will be divided into classrooms of no more than 18 students, while grades 5-12 will physically attend school twice a week and will learn from home for the majority of the time.
Gallant said that the goal is to create the needed infrastructure for allowing the format of learning from home in 50% of students’ households in Israel by the end of January 2021. This will require providing computers and smartphones to many households that do not currently have them.
“We will maintain this system throughout the school year, unless a vaccine is developed earlier, or God forbid, we go into lockdown,” Gallant added.
Gallant assured that while “it won’t be perfect,” the Education Ministry is doing everything in its power to allow the next school year to resume on September 1.
“We will be prepared for September 1. We have to get our schools back on track,” Gallant said. “We don’t have much time to prepare and the mission is a complicated one.”
In an attempt to prevent teachers from striking and delaying the beginning of the school year, MK Ariel Kelner (Likud), who sits on the Knesset's Education, Culture and Sports Committee, proposed a bill on Thursday evening that would limit the possibility of shutting down the education system until the end of 2020.
"It's time to stop the teachers unions' from terrorizing the entire system. Now, more than ever, Israel's citizens require certainty so they can plan their next steps and rise from the economic crisis which they find themselves in. It's more necessary than ever," Kelner said.
"Strikes cause heavy damage to the economy and immediately affect the daily lives of citizens. We are required to create a sense of certainty among parents and to allow for Israel's economy to grow, if we wish to survive the current crisis," Kelner added.


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