government sponsored kosher phones for Haredi distance learning comes through after all

Telephone school is the worst. Zoom School is pretty lousy, but telephone school is the worst. The phone lines are too overwhelmed. If the kid can get on the line it is usually poor quality audio or it disconnects at some point. Blah.

The reality, however, is that some kids need it. Many kids. That's all they have, if the schools are shut down due to the pandemic. Many schools will not use Zoom for schooling out of principle, so as not to use the Internet, so for them telephone school is the only option, bad as it may be.

Several months ago Deputy Minister Meir Porush tried to push the government to distribute free of charge kosher phones to schools and student sin the Haredi community. This would make compliance easier, as parents can't afford multiple phones and phone plans for all the kids that need to call in to school, and if they are not buying phones, the kids are home doing nothing, which also can't happen, so they send kids to schools against the rules. Supplying the phones for free would solve that problem. For whatever reason, involving the cellular phone companies fighting legal battles over the tenders, the government dragged its feet and it didn't happen.

Sure enough, now that the kids are all back in school, and it has become pretty clear that the schools the kosher phones would be designated for will almost definitely not be closed again (even if the rest of the schools will be), the government has finally approved the plan. Don't put it past the government to only approve the plan after it is no longer needed. And they'll spend the money anyway so someone's pockets get lined.

The Ministry of Education announced that starting this week they will begin distributing funds to the Haredi schools to purchase kosher phones, along with phone plans, for distance learning.

sources: Behadrei, INN, Kol Hai News

However it is exactly going to work I am not sure, but it seems at this point to not be necessary at all as pretty much all the schools are back in session, and the schools that opened up against the guidelines surely have no intention to close again even if the Ministry of Health orders schools to close, unless the situation gets really drastic.

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------