As bad, or as difficult, as zoom school is for the children, telephone school is far worse.
the Haredi school system has largely eschewed zoom school for ideological reasons, not wanting to suddenly bring internet and computers into the homes of the Haredi community. It has used telephone school instead, somewhat, as lousy as it is. The drive to open the schools despite the rules against it, are in part because of how difficult telephone school is, in addition to the social aspect of having the kids together with the rebbi and other educational benefits.
The Porush family, MK Meir and Mayor Yisrael, are complaining that the government has not provided the kosher telephones the community needs, and that why, at least in part, they are pushing to open the schools against the rules and are pressuring the government to leave them be.
Yisrael Porush claims that half a year ago he told the government that if they supply kosher telephones to the families in the Haredi community they will be able to learn in telephone school, but without it they will need to open the schools. Meir Porush is also
saying that the government committed to this program, published tenders and selected winners to supply the phones, but nothing has progressed with it.
While that is nice, and if it isn't expensive maybe the government should help the community do this if it would really be what it takes to keep the school closed and keep the community compliant, we all know it isn't true. Nobody is satisfied with zoom school, let alone with telephone school. Even had the government supplied the phones, they would be pushing to open the schools, because the two are not comparable. Plus we would still hear complaints how it isnt feasible because there aren't enough rooms in the apartments for the ten kids to all be on school telephone calls at the same time.
Truthfully the entire "10 kids in a 3 room apartment" is a fiction. Even families that have 10 kids don't have them all in such a close age range. Meaning, the youngest might be in school, but the 3 oldest might be married, 3 more might be in yeshiva dormitories, and the youngest 3 or 5 might be at home.
Regardless of that though, when the schools of my children shut down and we had to prepare for zoom school, or telephone school for some of the kids, we had to buy tablets and/or notebooks and kosherize them (as per school requirements) and get them ready and available for the kids to be in school. I am not sure why the government must buy kosher phones for the children of one sector but not buy the equipment necessary for the children of the other sectors.
If that is the price needed to pay, perhaps it is worth it, but I doubt that would solve the problem. In the end it would likely just be a way to get free phones out of the government with the phone bill paid for or subsidized. Parents want their children to learn and will do what is necessary to give the kids the best environment possible, under the circumstances. If telephone school is all that is possible, the parents should be responsible and buy the phones and not wait for the government. Everyone is struggling, many people are losing their jobs and/or closing their businesses because of the crisis created by Corona and lockdowns. If the government is going to help, they should really help everyone, not just one sector. And if the government is not going to help, the parents should deal with it in the best way possible. At the end of the day it is our responsibility to help our kids get the education they need, not the government's.
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