I am following the school year that opens today not only as the person who is privileged to serve as head of the Israeli education system, but as someone who has a privilege that is no less important – being the mother of Shir, who started 10th grade today. This combination of being a minister and a mother connects me even more to one of the truths that best express my outlook on education – that it is what remains with us after we forget everything we were taught in school. This short sentence, from Albert Einstein, best explains why those who devote their careers to education need passion, experience, and skills in pedagogical subjects.
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COVID forced us, as individuals and as a society, to confront many unexpected changes that demanded us to adjust. We need to allow our children to become reacquainted with the habits of school, allow them more activities at recess and be more aware of their emotional needs after such a complex year and a half. This is exactly the time to make school into an embracing social context that listens, inculcates values, and bolters heritage, and not only during classes. School should be a building block for students that gives them tools and life skills they can use to make their dreams come true.
The discrepancies that the school system suffered prior to the outbreak of COVID only worsened under the long lockdowns and distance learning. This is why opening this school year on schedule was an implementation of the moral and social obligation to offer our children social stability, emotional strength, and also certainly, insofar as the current reality allows.
The health challenge has not disappeared. It is still with us, but time does not stand still. We cannot allow ourselves to lose an entire generation of talents because the school system was only partly operational, like it was during the previous waves of COVID. I listen to the discourse around the opening of the school year. I'm aware of the longing to get back to normal, and also understand the concerns of parents in this challenging time. The decision to open the school year as scheduled was not made in a vacuum. It was preceded by numerous meetings with representatives of parents, teachers, principals, students, local authority heads, and school directors, our partners.
Working with the Health Ministry, we put together a framework to open the school that balances protecting Israeli students' physical and emotional health. The days of long lockdowns and distance learning have left many students behind, and much frustration. We are working to provide solutions for this.
In the past few months, I had the privilege of meeting with educators who are motivated to make changes. Teachers who chose their work even though it doesn't always pay financially, but offers incomparable compensation in being part of shaping Israeli society. I trust the parents, the school staffs, and especially the students, who have undergone and are still undergoing a difficult time that will shape the rest of their lives, and know that we will all cooperate to ensure a safe return to school and an unbroken teaching-educational continuity.
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