Approximately two weeks ago, the head of Israel’s Local Government Association revealed that the state plans to bring 5,000 workers from Sri Lanka and India to staff kindergartens across Israel. This announcement is yet another sign of the severe crisis gripping the country’s education system.
Israel’s schools are suffering from a dangerous combination of teacher shortages, high attrition rates, and a devaluation of the teaching profession. According to recent data from the Knesset Research and Information Center, one in ten new teachers leaves the system in their first year, one in five departs in their first five years, and some 3,000 graduates of teaching programs never enter the education system at all.
Israel prides itself on being a start-up nation, but when nearly 80% of school principals report significant teacher shortages, when many schools are missing three or more teachers, and when gaps are especially acute in core subjects like English and mathematics, the country’s ability to sustain its hi-tech achievements comes into question.
The danger of a teacher shortage
A quarter of principals report that the lack of qualified teachers is already harming the quality of instruction – far above the average among OECD countries. These are not just dry statistics – they bring us closer to a dystopian reality in which educators and students face a system that recruits “anyone with a pulse” to fill classroom teaching positions, at the expense of real education.
At the same time, Israeli society is grappling with unprecedented levels of violence and social tension – manifestations not only of an educational crisis but also of a deep moral fracture. In a reality where students stab other students, teachers are attacked, and bullying and harassment are rampant, the role of the teacher as a moral guide has never been more critical. Without them, schools lose their ability to be safe spaces where values like mutual respect, empathy, and collaboration are instilled. The education system’s potential to shape culture and nurture healthy social discourse is at risk when it is itself mired in structural and behavioral crises.
![Group of students raising hands during a lesson in the classroom. [Illustrative]](https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/f_auto,fl_lossy/c_fill,g_faces:center,h_537,w_822/392749)
The vision of a model society, as articulated in the writings of Theodor Herzl, was never meant to be an unreachable utopia: It was a goal around which society could organize itself. He imagined a society governed by justice, one that cares for individuals and educates toward values that go beyond technical knowledge to embrace humanity itself. An education system that struggles to retain professionals capable of imparting these values is far from realizing Herzl’s vision. The shortage of teachers is not only a human resources problem – it is a national and social identity question: What kind of generation do we want to raise, and which messages do we want embedded in the daily lives of our children?
The respected educator Chaim Peri once said, “Education builds society”– but what happens when there are no builders left? Only broad systemic change will keep them in the profession: improvements in salaries and professional development, strong training pathways, mentoring support for every teacher throughout their career, and public and governmental recognition of the teaching role – these are all essential. Many other countries, including some in the OECD, combine extensive support for teaching with government funding that guarantees excellent employment conditions, continuous training, and incentives to retain teachers over time.
Education is the heart of any stable and thriving society. Investing in teachers is not a luxury: it is the fundamental mechanism for sustaining a society that views education as a tool for national resilience, shapes its future citizens, and safeguards core guiding values.
In Israel, a country founded on the vision of a model society, this is not just aspirational rhetoric – it’s a matter of survival. If we fail to invest now in securing the future of our children’s education, and instead privatize the system while neglecting Israeli educators, we are forfeiting the future of society itself.
The writer is the CEO of Village Way Educational Initiatives, which works to transform society through value-based education that fosters emotional resilience among at-risk populations. The organization mentors and guides dozens of educational communities and gap-year pre-military leadership programs in Israel’s periphery.