{"id":12673,"date":"2026-07-07T12:08:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T12:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/?post_type=article&p=12673"},"modified":"2026-07-07T12:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T12:08:07","slug":"the-education-ministrys-latest-shameful-capitulation-to-the-teachers-union","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/the-education-ministrys-latest-shameful-capitulation-to-the-teachers-union\/","title":{"rendered":"The Education Ministry’s Latest Shameful Capitulation to the Teachers’ Union"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Ministry of Education has amassed many failures, but none more shameful than its failure under Minister Kisch to bring teachers into the system under personal contracts. As of the last update, a total of 13 personal contract positions were filled by some 30 teachers on a part-time basis. This is no accident, as the Ministry allowed only a handful of teachers to take up only extremely partial positions, and this policy is only the latest in a long line of capitulations to the Israel Teachers’ Union (Histradrut Hamorim<\/em>). In the most recent salary agreement, it was settled that the Ministry of Education could employ up to 6% of the teaching workforce under special contracts, through which teachers would receive a higher starting salary but work in a flexible position and without tenure. Such a framework has the potential to enlist more than 8,000 teachers to a system that desperately needs them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Had the Ministry of Education seized upon this breakthrough, dropped into its lap by the Ministry of Finance, it could have recruited new teachers into the system in the subjects that suffer from a shortage \u2013 mathematics, English, language, and science. The attempt by Education Minister Kisch to lean on the “Hi-Tech Bagrut<\/em> Program” data cannot conceal the numerous indications of the decline in these subjects among Israeli schoolchildren. Everyone familiar with the system has been lamenting the fact there simply aren’t enough quality teachers in these subjects, because the private market affords them good alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of invigorating the system with hundreds, even thousands, of quality teachers, the Ministry of Education announced two years ago a pilot program of only 200 teachers in the Tel Aviv and Central districts. Though the call was issued sparingly, it was responded to by 800 high-caliber applicants, surprising the publishers themselves. Still, Yaffa Ben David felt threatened and demanded the Ministry not use its budget to fund the contracts that were agreed upon in the salary agreement. The Ministry folded, as it always does, and canceled the pilot. For the current school year, the Ministry agreed to fund 100 positions from an auxiliary budget, and it failed to fill even that small quota. No call was issued and the recruitment was limited to part-time positions, and so the term commencement mountain was reduced to a molehill at its conclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yaffa Ben David is all smiles in interviews, overjoyed at this failure. She claims there is no demand for personal contracts, despite the fact that as noted – only two years ago, applicants were four times more numerous than the amount of available positions. In her interview with journalist Naveh Dromi she chuckled: “They wanted to bring in some “stars”, people from the Technion, and how many entered? You can count them on one hand”. She just forgot to mention how she did everything in her power to bring about this failure of the Ministry. Not that Ministry officials fought to recruit teachers under personal contracts. Quite the contrary: they were dragged to it by the Ministry of Finance seemingly against their will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, an article recently published in TheMarker is a reminder that there does exist a nature reserve showing what the Ministry of Education could look like were it not for the power of the teachers’ organizations. The article describes the HEMDA Center for Science Education in Tel Aviv, which every year prepares over 2,000 students from the city’s schools for a scientific matriculation exam, exposing them to researchers and resources they would be highly unlikely to encounter in school. The admission requirements for teachers at the Center include a master’s degree at least in physics, chemistry, or a related scientific field, with preference given to doctorate degree holders. Or, as Yafa Ben David calls them – “stars”. And they work, wonder of wonders, under personal contracts of 16 -18 thousand shekels per month, exactly like the personal contracts the Ministry of Education isn’t taking any advantage of. One of the heads of HEMDA was quoted in the article saying they have no shortage of quality science teachers, and can even choose the best among candidates – in other words, a mirror image of the Ministry of Education’s failures, which as a Ministry is, according to the latest tests, failing Israel’s students. It turns out that personal contracts are attractive after all – all that’s required is a healthy distance from the Ministry of Education and the teachers’ organizations. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(First appeared in Makor Rishon<\/a><\/em>, 30.06.2026)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ministry of Education has amassed many failures, but none more shameful than its failure under Minister Kisch to bring teachers into the system under personal contracts. As of the last update, a total of 13 personal contract positions were filled by some 30 teachers on a part-time basis. 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