Will a new monitoring system be introduced shortly within yeshivos and kollelim? A high ranking Likud member, integrally involved in the negotiations regarding the upcoming bill on drafting yeshiva students, revealed on Monday in a press briefing in the Knesset a new program to replace the current system of checking on attendance. Instead of inspectors coming to monitor attendance, new devices will be installed where everyone will have to prove attendance via biometric fingerprinting, upon entrance and exit of the study halls.
These computerized systems have government approval and will work in the same way as time clocks registering worker attendance in offices and businesses. But it will not suffice at that; there will be periodic check ups in yeshivos during the day to see that all those who clocked in that morning are still present during the day. An inspector need only call up and have each person reaffirm his presence by having his fingerprints registered at that given time, a process which by phone and computer should not take more than 15 minutes, say for an enrollment of fifty students. If a student who showed up in the morning is not there at inspection time, the yeshiva will be discredited and that student be blacklisted as a civil offender.
The Likud member said that this new system was discussed in talks between Likud and Kadima, with an agreement reached whereby it would be incorporated into the new draft law if and when it is presented and passed.
In the meantime, talks between Likud and Kadima have broken down and the future is uncertain.
