The 2015-2016 school year began today at 4,805 educational institutions in Israel with 1,689,939 students going to school, including 157,477 pupils entering first grade. 680,000 more children will end their summer vacations by going to kindergarten. 166,208 teachers will give lessons in 68,271 classrooms in the Israeli educational system - an increase of only one teacher, compared with last year.
Parents at several schools announced that they will not send their children to school, due to overcrowded classrooms. These include the Yafe Nof school in Jerusalem and the Rabin and Nof Girls schools in Tel Mond, due to the physical condition of the classrooms. Students in the town of Kochav Yair - Tzur Yigal will not go to school today in protest against the lack of a high school in the town. Students at the Dvir school in Holon will demonstrate in front of the municipality, and will then go on strike because of overcrowding in the school. Dozens of Christian schools will also not begin the school year in protest at the restriction on payments by parents imposed by the Ministry of Education.
Before beginning his first school year as Minister of Education, Naftali Bennett went to the Ministry of Education headquarters to receive a general briefing on the school year. He commented on the reforms he initiated in his ministry, including a reform aimed at reducing overcrowding in classrooms. "In schools in which splitting classes means classes with 16 students, which is unreasonable, we gave a lot of money to split the classes in a major proportion of the main subjects," Bennett said in explaining his decision to leave certain classrooms with 40 students this year. "We reached an average of 28 students per class, which is amazing. This year, the children will be treated with more personal attention."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 1, 2015
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2015