The Battle for Education: “The Corona is here to stay

The decision of the Ministry of Health and the Corona Cabinet to open kindergartens and first to third grades fully and without capsules, as well as the decision not to prioritize the teaching staff in the vaccination campaign, has increased anxiety among educators, many of whom support the closure of the system.

Yesterday, the secretary general of the Teachers’ Union, Yaffa Ben-David, called on the Corona cabinet to shut down the education system for ten days, during which time it would vaccinate the teaching staff. At the same time, mayors decided on their own to reduce and close educational institutions.

Smadar Morse, principal of Nofim Elementary School in Tel Aviv, opposes closing the education system. “A sweeping decision to close the entire education system poses a danger to many boys and girls, so it should be the last step the government chooses to take,” Morse said. “True and responsible leadership must have the ability to make decisions in complex situations. Children and adolescents suffer for many months from severe symptoms of anxiety, fear, depression, loneliness, addictions, obesity and so on.”

“There are reports of a significant increase in the number of teens seeking emergency and mental health assistance due to growing mental and emotional distress,” Morse continued. “All this can not go unnoticed by the decision-makers in the government. It is inconceivable that the responsible adult would be present-absent.”

The different attitudes regarding opening or closing the education system cause confusion, uncertainty and anxiety among many parents, who prefer to leave their children at home. “We left our son at home because we are afraid of getting infected,” a father told a 11th-grade student.

The national parent leadership called on the cabinet to keep the education system open, to exclude it and to take an approach that distinguishes between cities with high morbidity, and cities with low or no morbidity at all. One suggestion is to distinguish between morbidity data in each school individually, and thus decide whether to stay open or not.

“Our children are not hostages in the failed attempts of government ministries to enforce the closure. It is time for the Ministry of Health to stop looking at the data in black and white. The data are diverse, we must examine where there are outbreaks of disease and treat them regardless of the sector to which they belong,” , Deputy Parents’ Leadership.

According to the parents’ leadership, closing the education system will increase the heavy damage that has already been done to students academically, socially and mentally, which has led them to situations of risk in the form of violence and suicide. In their view, the government prefers to impose a comprehensive closure rather than invest in enforcement.

Dikla Tzur from Ramat Gan, the mother of 3-year-old Shai, who is studying in a pre-compulsory kindergarten, explained how important the education system is for children, so it should not be closed by default. “We understand the need to prevent and reduce morbidity and are aware of the responsibility placed on us by the parents. We adhere to the guidelines at home and in kindergarten, and together with the educational staff educate the children to maintain hygiene.” Said Zur. “But it is not possible that the easy default will be the children and the education system. The feeling is that in the end the responsibility for dealing with this crisis in moments of truth is passed on to us parents.”

“When it starts to get a little challenging, instead of dealing with the situation in creative ways and thinking outside the box – just shut down the education system,” Zur continued. “Treat the system as a ‘babysitter’, when in practice this is not the case at all. The education system is the anchor of our children, and it is an ‘island of sanity’ in all this strange corona routine to which we have been sucked. It allows children to develop themselves mentally and socially. “Social skills are a cornerstone of ours as an Israeli society, that is what sets us apart.”

According to Dikla, it is the lack of routine that hurts children. “The children have been hurt enough so far by the closures and they owe continuity and routine. My daughter is only 3 years old, and she loves going to kindergarten to meet friends, the kindergartener and the assistant, to learn and play. To meet her friends. “

On the other hand, the director of the Amit Amichai yeshiva in Rehovot, Rabbi Shimon Shoshan, said that he would like to make an effort to keep the schools open, but reality has struck him. “Unfortunately, in the last two days I have been experiencing an apocalypse – students and teachers who are not feeling well, isolations and entire classes moving to learn from home. The situation is now similar to what we went through on New Year’s Eve,” Shoshan described.

Sagi Cohen, principal of the “Rene Cassin Darcha” school in Jerusalem, demands that the schools in the green localities be left open. “One should constantly consider how it is possible, of course in coordination with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education, to keep the schools open in the green localities, while paying particular attention to regulations and restrictions of course,” he said.

Cohen noted the difficulties in distance learning. “If we thought the technological means could provide an answer, then we came to discover that no technological means replaces human contact with the students. When the student is in front of us, we can identify his personal problems optimally. When we meet in front of the screen, the difficulty in finding problems is greater.”

“We get up in the morning and are scared because we feel we are missing students, and we do not know what is happening behind the scenes,” Cohen continued. “If there is a black screen or some attractive background, one does not know what their emotional state is. Bottom line, the screen does not allow for the identification of objective problems in students, so the slope here is very slippery to much wider problems.”

The chairman of the National Student Council, Yuval Godker, a 12th grade student from Be’er Sheva, also told how difficult it is to study from a distance. “We know we already have the stamp of the Corona generation on us, and once again we are being intolerantly locked in houses,” she said. “It is impossible to learn from a distance because there is no personal attitude from the teacher, lessons get stuck and if the teacher has a problem online the lesson is canceled. At school we ventilate emotions, meet with friends and teachers. Closing will hurt us greatly.”

Additional education experts believe that it is possible to continue operating the system and not rush to close it. Dr. Yariv Feniger, a researcher in education policy and educational inequality in the Department of Education at Ben-Gurion University, said that the Corona period has strengthened the recognition that the Israeli education system pays a heavy price due to its centralized structure.

According to him, the perception that the Ministry of Education can plan and implement a uniform policy in such a diverse country is also unfounded in a state of routine, but this has been particularly pronounced in recent months. “The experience from these months again demonstrates the urgent need to advance processes of transfer of authority to local authorities and schools, which better understand from the Ministry of Education the local contexts and needs of the student population,” he said. “Local authorities and schools have demonstrated in times of crisis an impressive capacity for rapid adaptation and response to changing realities.”

Dr. Adar Ben-Eliyahu from the Faculty of Education at the University of Haifa said that in order to operate the education system correctly and effectively, even in light of the significant increase in morbidity, hermetic capsules should be maintained so that one educator is responsible for two capsules. “On shuttles, no afternoons or breaks, and while maintaining hygiene, distance and masks at all times,” she said, “so that even if the need arises to insulate or send a capsule home, the school can maintain hermeticity.”

Ben-Eliyahu explained that in order to maintain as much space as possible between the students, there must be enough spaces, so it is necessary to convert as many buildings as possible in favor of this, or to apply rapid construction techniques. “In addition, it is necessary to allow as much outdoor learning as possible in the open air. This way you can continue the education system in a study routine in the shadow of the corona – thus creating a corona routine. Right now, we are in a corona emergency. saying.