The Education Ministry plans to expand its subsidized summer program for elementary students by three weeks and launch a new summer program for middle school students in response to closures during the war, Education Minister Yoav Kisch announced on Thursday.
The plan has not yet been approved by the government, and the Finance Ministry subsequently stated that it lacks funding.
Kisch made the announcement as most schools across the country reopened for in-person learning after more than a month of closures during the war with Iran. Restrictions were lifted on Wednesday after the ceasefire was announced, with limitations still in place for schools in northern Israel and communities bordering Lebanon due to the continued threat from Hezbollah.
Kisch's plan does not extend regular studies into the summer. Instead, it expands the existing framework called the “Summer Vacation School,” which is run by the Education Ministry and provides state-subsidized summer programs after the school year ends.
Kisch explained that the Summer Vacation School will be extended by three weeks and will expand to include all elementary students from first through sixth grade. He also announced a new program for middle school students in grades seven to nine, called the Summer Preparatory Program, which will focus on “closing gaps that accumulated during the war.”
The budget for the initiative is expected to be approximately NIS 750 million, Kisch said.
Summer support initiative for students
The initiative is intended to ensure educational, emotional, and social continuity for Israel’s students during the summer months, in light of Operation Roaring Lion and its impact on students, parents, and educational staff, the Education Ministry stated.
“It will provide educational and academic support, focusing on bridging gaps that accumulated during the war period, in a flexible format tailored to the unique needs of schools and local authorities,” Kisch said at a press conference while visiting a school that reopened in Rishon Lezion.
“It won’t be simple. We will work on it, prepare it; it requires budgeting and cooperation with local authorities. But I think that, in light of the recent war, including the three weeks leading up to Passover and everything that has happened, this step is necessary,” he said.
The NIS 750 million budget is still pending government approval, though Kisch said he will bring the plan forward to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
“I believe I will receive approval,” he added.
The Finance Ministry responded shortly afterward that Kisch’s plan was not coordinated with it and that it lacked available funding.
“The program that was published was not coordinated with us, and it does not have available funding. Together with the Education Ministry, we can examine which budgets the Education Ministry can allocate for the program’s needs,” the Finance Ministry stated.
Smotrich clashed with Kisch last month, calling for remote learning to end.
The finance minister had stated that the remote learning system was ineffective and “is not a model that produces meaningful outcomes.” Instead, he called for restructuring the school calendar so that regular studies would take place in the summer.
Blue and White chairman MK Benny Gantz sharply criticized Kisch's announcement on Thursday to expand the Summer Vacation School. He argued that the government should have extended the regular school framework into July and postponed the summer vacation to begin a month later.
“A government that had the ability to lead would have determined that July is a regular school month, and that the summer vacation would begin in August and continue until after the holidays, once and for all,” Gantz stated.
“This government is once again trying to put a band-aid on a situation where real repair is possible, where we could strengthen our children and make a genuine change,” he added.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) slammed Kisch on Wednesday in an X/Twitter post, saying that the education minister entered the war “with no plan at all for the education system," calling it a failure.
Schools across the country were shut down when the war began on February 28. The decision to keep schools closed despite reopening workplaces for employees led to fierce criticism throughout the war from politicians, lawmakers, and working parents with no framework for their children.