ISRAEL’S CHILDREN ARE PAWNS IN DIRTY
POLITICS
Dr. Harold Goldmeier
September 27, 2016
Education Minister Naftali Bennett and President Reuven
Rivlin this week greeted 30 education ministers invited to Jerusalem for the OECD
Global Education Industry Summit. In a hauteur manner posing a big smile for
the cameras, Bennett proclaimed, “We can transform the world….In this room we
have the world’s real security council: the education security council.”
Laughter, applause, and a lot of backslapping ensued.
What a sham.
·
Israel does not have
adequate numbers of full time teachers in schools
·
They are highly committed (80
percent return year after year) but not paid a livable wage
·
It is reported more than a
quarter of teachers are part-timers and temps
·
Many teachers are inured to
terrible pay and resigned to holding second and third positions to make ends
meet
·
Female teachers earn ten
percent less than males in the system
·
Funding cuts (and the
government’s refusal to place Arab teachers in Jewish schools crying for staff)
for Arab
schools are deeper and more widespread leaving a pool of 11,000 unemployed Arab
teachers in northern Israel
·
Teachers earn an unlivable
wage on average of nis6,800 to 10,438 per month; haredi teachers earn half that
amount.
Almost ten years ago, an OECD report found Israel’s teachers
among the lowest paid in the world. Not much has changed. An OECD report,
Education at a Glance 2016, confirms Israel spends significantly less on
education, less per student, and less across all education levels in comparison
to the average spending among OECD countries. Here’s how the premium site
financial Globes, that reports on the
economic health of Israel, presented
other findings on September 22, 2016:
·
Israeli teachers worst paid
in OECD
·
Israeli elementary school
teachers earn less than all others
·
Israel ranks at the bottom
of teacher pay scales with one report putting Israeli teacher salaries below
Turkey, Chile and Mexico
·
Other nations spend more
than $9,000 on salaries per pupil per year, while Israel spends $1,912 per
pupil per year.
A strong viable teacher corps is essential to national
economic growth, productivity and national security. Israel’s vaunted hi-tech
sector boasts salaries topping nis24,000 per month, because techies are
essential to exports and national security. Teachers are not considered on par.
But the hi-tech sector is shrinking and dire. It suffers
from a shortage of computer engineers and scientists. Israel’s competitive edge
is in a state of erosion. University professors in science, engineering, technology,
and math report they cannot fill enough slots with qualified students coming up
through the education system.
Minister Bennett recognizes the problem. In a recent
announcement, improving science, math, and English studies are among his top
four targets for curriculum attention. Nevertheless, in November 2015 the
Knesset passed a budget allocating an additional NIS6.7 billion to the Education
Ministry, but by August 2016 the two years budget passed for 2017-2018
allocates far less
in both years and little for bettering teacher salaries. By 2017 thousands of
teachers are anticipating being fired, perhaps as many as 7,000. They are
already looking for jobs outside teaching.
If only education had an advocate like MK Litzman
is for healthcare: Litzman, according
to an August 16, 2016 Jerusalem Post article by Judy Siegel-Itkovich, promises ‘war’ to expand health basket.
I know another young man who left teaching (three jobs) in
Israel, out of frustration and unable to support his family on the pay.
Another, an English teacher
blogs how welcoming the staff and children in two schools were to her (both
part-time employment). “I felt like a rock star.” However, “month after month
there was no sign of pay—instead, the schools and the Ministry of Education
threw more and more random paperwork at me while I patronizingly told to be
patient…. I have only experienced a similar level of chaos in third world
countries limping along on non-existent economies.”
Bennett and Rivlin ginned up the Israel hasbara of doing good deeds, being a lighthouse in a sea of Middle
East turbulence, about new and innovative teaching curricula and methods, safe
learning environments, and skills training.
But they keep forgetting how little the teachers are paid who are doing
all the heavy lifting, while the politicians are gamming and posturing before
foreign dignitaries and cameras. It’s time for political blather and prattle to
end and appreciate the Shel Silverstein sigh for Israel’s teachers: “Talked my
head off. Worked my tail off. Cried my eyes out. Walked my feet off. Sang my
heart out. So you see, there’s really not much left of me.”
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