|
|
NEWS
Education Ministry's Dovrat Report Enters Trial Stage in
12 Local Authorities
By G. Kleiman
According to the Education Ministry, 12 local authorities
will begin preparations in the coming weeks to implement the
Dovrat Report with the start of the 5766 school year. On the
list of local authorities chosen are Ofakim, Ariel, Dimona,
Herzliya, Holon, Haifa, Natzrat Illit, Ramat Gan, Ramle,
Shfaram, the Gilboa Regional Council and the Shlomi Regional
Council.
The Education Ministry's Dovrat Implementation
Administration, headed by Shmuel Harnoy, will dispatch teams
to each location. In cooperation with local authority
representatives these teams will decide in which towns to
implement the Dovrat Report next year, notably where the
extended school day and the five-day school week will go into
effect.
Teachers' associations announced that they would take harsh
steps, including a stoppage of the entire school system, if
the Education Ministry begins implementing the Dovrat Report
recommendations in a number of towns without reaching an
overall agreement with teachers' organizations. The teachers
claim that the Education Ministry is trying to create
established facts without exhausting channels of dialogue.
Last week, heads of the teachers' organizations sent a letter
to the respective heads of the local authorities threatening
to shut down schools if plans were begun to implement the
Dovrat Report.
At some of these local authorities, such as Ramle, Dimona,
Ofakim, Ariel, Shlomi and some schools in Haifa and Natzrat
Illit, the extended-day program is already in operation based
on an older Extended-Day Study Law in effect in development
towns and areas of national priority. There a portion of the
cost of the extended day is funded by parents and local
authorities. The transition to a full-fledged extended day,
as proposed by the Dovrat Committee, would end parents' and
local authorities' participation in funding the program, but
would also put an end to studies on Fridays.
The Education Ministry budgeted NIS 200 million for five
years toward the funding of Friday activities for the
underprivileged, but the criteria for receiving this funding
have not been set. As part of preparations, each local
authority will be asked to assess various possibilities to
arrange educational activities on Fridays in collaboration
with community centers, youth movements and foundations.
The primary reason for the limited number of participating
towns, in contradiction to the initial pledge by Education
Minister L. Livnat, is the deadlock in negotiations with
teachers' organizations. During the course of eight meetings
held between teachers and the Finance and Education
Ministries, no progress was made toward the implementation of
the report. From the Education Ministry's standpoint every
day that passes without progress in negotiations diminishes
the chances of implementing the report in the coming school
year, since principals and educators must take training
courses and teachers must be dismissed within just a few
months' time. Meanwhile heads of teachers' organizations
would like to draw out the time frame and even proposed
extending negotiations until November.
"We notified all of the local authority heads that
implementation of the report, and not merely a portion of
them, would take place only upon completion of negotiations
with the Finance and Education [Ministries]," said a
spokesman for the teachers' organizations, "and we will
respond accordingly to any move in which a mayor tries to
carry out the recommendations against the stance taken by the
teachers' organizations. The publication of the list of towns
is another step in the unconstructive management of affairs
the Education Minister is leading."
|
