Remarks by Prime Minister Netanyahu at the beginning of the cabinet meeting
( Photo: Itai Beit On, GPO)
Corona morbidity rate continues to be worrying, the government is expected to tighten restrictions on the public and close educational institutions immediately: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tends to accept the recommendation of the Ministry of Health, and order a complete closure of the education system and reduce the activity in the workplaces to only essential. This emerges ahead of the cabinet meeting on Wednesday that will deal with tightening the closure.
The Ministry of Health wants to impose a significant closure for two weeks, but the prime minister is expected to request extensive restrictions for a week to 10 days. “I will enter the government in the next 48 hours to make a decision on tightening the closure in a last-ditch effort to eradicate the plague,” the prime minister said tonight.
Netanyahu’s tendency in recent days has been to go back to the original decision of the government, which left early childhood education and grades one through four and eleven to twelve open, but now he has hardened his stance. On the other hand, in blue and white, led by Defense Minister Bnei Gantz, they believe that the education system should be left open and a decision made only on Thursday – after the results of the latest restrictions are reflected in the morbidity data.
Netanyahu and Gantz. Disagreements over tightening the closure
(Photo: Yariv Katz, Alex Kolomoisky)
In blue and white, they said that before making a decision on the issue of the education system, it is necessary to also receive information about the amount of vaccines that the health system currently has and how many vaccines are expected to arrive in Israel. According to Blue and White, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Ministry of Health avoided providing information on the subject on the grounds of confidentiality.
In addition, they indicate in blue and white that it is necessary to see whether the moderation in the coefficient of infection of the patients continues to be severe and moderate. “We may already be seeing the results of the first round of vaccinations,” they say in blue and white. “If the difficult number of patients does not continue to double – then there is no fear of overcrowding in hospitals.” Gantz’s party wants to close as few parts of the education system as possible and make up for missing school days on Passover and summer.
Towards the closing of schools
(Photo: Yair Sagi )
The Ministry of Health insists on closing the entire education system and presents a figure according to which 42% of the morbidity in Israel is related to education, caregivers, kindergarten teachers and teachers. However, experts advising the Corona Cabinet have claimed in recent days that less than 15% of those verified at the age of the education system have been infected within kindergartens and schools. The Minister of Science, Yizhar Shai, of a white brush, says that this means that schools are a relatively protected place from Corona.
After Secretary of the Teachers’ Union Yaffa Ben-David warned that she intends to shut down schools from next Tuesday if teaching staff are not vaccinated, Defense Minister Ganz said at a cabinet meeting that “vaccines should be promoted to the education system and creative solutions for children attending Corona.”
Ganz in an interview with the Ynet studio
(Photo: Meshi Ben Ami)
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein warned at the cabinet meeting: “If we do not take the most difficult steps there are – we will be in the situation of Italy in March-April last March. I know what I am saying and we will present these things in the government. We will be in a more difficult health crisis.” And this is a promo for discussion so that we do not go to bed at night with the feeling that ‘we will just hold on’
Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz sounds more determined: “Every day that the British mutation continues to rage in the country. Because of the hope that the vaccines will be useful, we will cause disaster as happened in Britain and elsewhere in Europe. We did not respond – not two weeks ago or in recent days. “Including the education system, we will pay dearly for this story.”
“We will pay dearly.” Stones
(Photo: Avi Mualem)
In contrast to the unified front presented from the beginning of the first closure between parents, local authorities, teachers and academics about the demand to exclude the system and leave it open subject to restrictions, it seems that at present seven cracks have occurred among all involved.
The decision of the Corona Cabinet to open kindergartens fully and without capsules and the decision to place teachers at a low priority in the vaccine chain, increased the anxieties among those engaged in the craft backed as stated by their representatives. At the same time, the heads of local authorities decided on their own to reduce and even close educational frameworks.
All of these have increased the confusion and uncertainty and anxieties among many parents. The national parent leadership continues to call for leaving the education system open and excluding it. Leadership chairwoman Merom Schiff said the closure of the education system would exacerbate the damage already done to students academically, socially and mentally and led them to situations of risk of violence and suicide.
Deputy chair of the parent leadership Odelia Sheindorf said that children are not a source of infection and the education system should be left open. “We demand to create a separate education index for each school, to set objective indices for closure and opening. The children are not held hostage by the inability to enforce, “Sheindorf said.
She added: “The data published by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health show that contrary to the baseless statements before the second closure, in which Israeli students were accused of being the source of distribution and the source of the outbreak and therefore needed to close the education system, were found to be incorrect and intended to serve one purpose. .
“Data today show that 85% of infections of school-age children do not originate in educational institutions but infection at home, within the family and outside the education system. The school is a reflection of the neighborhood in which it is located. Therefore, the education system is repeatedly used as a tool and hostage to create enforcement. And management where we fail. “
“Closing will exacerbate the damage.” Ship
(Photo: Boaz Nobleman)
Education Minister Yoav Galant called on Prime Ministers to unite behind Prime Minister Netanyahu and immediately approve the outline for operating the education system during the closure period, as approved by the government and rejected by the Knesset Education Committee. However, Netanyahu is reluctant to say so and is not expected to accept Minister Galant’s proposal, which believes that the adoption of the outline will help maintain the health of students and teaching staff, along with an appropriate educational response.
In recent days, voices have risen among local authority heads to close educational institutions as a preventative measure in the face of rising morbidity. This was done, for example, by Bat Yam Mayor Zvika Brut and Ramat Gan Mayor Carmel Shama-Hacohen.
However, Avi Kaminsky, chairman of the Association of Local Government Education Directors, said a survey found that there was a drop in individual percentages in student attendance at educational institutions across the country. Individuals, but we feel the trend, “Kaminski said.
“It’s a matter of a few percent.” Kaminsky
In Kiryat Bialik, which experienced an outbreak two weeks ago in the Neurim elementary school, there are currently no closed schools. However, students in 10 classes out of 233 in the city are in isolation. At the same time, 4 of the 65 kindergartens in the city are closed. In Kiryat Ata, 14 classrooms were closed in nine schools as well as nine kindergartens.
In Kiryat Yam, eight classrooms were closed for isolation, as well as five “capsules” in which children study together. In some schools in the city more than one class was closed. Mayor David Ibn Tzur estimated that it is only a matter of time until the entire education system closes. “Never resilience,” Ibn Tzur said. “I call on the government to reach a decision and help us maintain student health.”