Some one million Israeli children began their new school year today. A further 600,000 did not.
It is the annual lottery: “Will my child be affected by this year’s schools strike?”
Take the example of my boss. This morning he sent his son to his junior high school, having been told that the middle schools would be unaffected by the teachers’ industrial action. So, the young man arrived for class bright and early to discover it had been canceled. The reason: his junior high is in the same building as a high school, which is hit by strike action.
A quick survey of Israelis will tell you that they neither know why the teachers are striking other than some vague reference to money, nor will they say they sympathize with the educators.
The start-of-the-school-year strike has become an annual ritual, the only changeable factor being the reason. Last year the teachers blamed the security situation, pointing to a lack of guards at educational institutions. The truth is that battle garnered considerable public support, with some parents saying they would refuse to send their offspring into an unguarded school or nursery.
And this really brings us to the nub of this diatribe.
Perhaps the main reason for the lack of funding for improving teachers’ pay and conditions is the enormous burden of the state defense budget. Despite the fact that a quarter of every shekel owned by the State of Israel goes to pay to protect the public, the education budget is so starved the Education Ministry cannot afford to pay for security guards outside schools.
As a result, whether the children are in school or not, in many cases they are equally at risk from the threat of terror: unguarded in school or open to the terrorists’ whims in public places.
And in case you think this is just a case of scaremongering by The Media Line, just take a look on the gate of any school or kindergarten in Israel and you will see the same sign, urging parents and children to be on the lookout for terrorists, because of “hot warnings” of likely attacks against educational institutions.
So, while the teachers are able to differentiate between elementary and high school pupils in their strike action, it would appear that the terrorists make no such distinction.