The most neglected part of the education system, daycare, hasn't even been mentioned during the ongoing battle being waged by the teachers' unions and education minister.
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For decades now, the education system has lacked vision, management, and the funds it needs like oxygen. It's as if the governments of Israel have treated education as a budgetary burden rather than the most important investment in our future. Hence nothing is more just than the present struggle; my only hope is that after they finish talking about salaries they will also discuss adapting the education system to the 21st Century.
This fight isn't complete, however: It's missing the war over our daycare, from age zero to three – the critical years in which our personalities are formed and established. The crisis in the daycare system is no less acute than in elementary and high schools. Hundreds of daycares and nursery schools shut down every year, abandoned en masse by staff, while daycare owners are warning that it's almost impossible to find new manpower. Unlike higher grades, however, whose schools will continue operating despite the crisis, many parents of infants and toddlers will find themselves on September 1 facing locked gates.
For dozens of years, studies have shown that social gaps start at birth and that daycare education has the potential to close those distances and ensure true equality of opportunity – even for those born into less fortunate socioeconomic circumstances. Therefore, the majority of advanced countries today invest significant government funds in daycare education for the less privileged, and particularly invest in developing daycare professionals to make sure toddlers receive a quality education.
In Israel the situation is dire. At present, more than 80% of the teachers working in the daycare system don't have any professional training, and until recently, the daycare system was actually under the purview of the Economy Ministry. The transition to the Education Ministry is the most important step this government has taken in terms of society. The government's investment – 30 times more than in previous years – will allow some 7,000 daycare workers to receive professional training this year, and the impact on tens of thousands of toddlers will be felt on the ground as early as the coming school year.
This revolution needs to gain momentum. Most of the educators in the daycare system earn minimum wage, don't receive further training, don't get overtime pay, or seniority bonuses, and are discriminated against compared to their colleagues in the higher grades. Their work is no less challenging and difficult than that of pre-school and elementary school teachers, and they should be compensated appropriately – especially those who have invested in their professional careers and pursued further training.
Despite the fact that everything starts there and that establishing a solid cognitive, emotional and motoric foundation facilitates continued development and success, daycare education is still stuck alone in the corner. And this is when it's obvious that investing in it will make things far easier for preschool and kindergarten teachers down the road.
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