Could the Education Ministry's distance learning system be compromised in a way that could place the young students using it in harm's way? Some parents argue that is, indeed, the case.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, much of the Israeli educational system has transitioned to online learning. The Education Ministry has created special email addresses for every student in Israel to participate in online classes broadcast via the Zoom app, and the students also use this address to receive various messages, assignments, and more.

  Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Some parents have expressed concerns about whether this kind of system keeps their children's personal information secure. For example, all students' emails have automatically been added to the school district's mailing list, meaning that any person who can access the system can also access the information of all the other students in the district. An individual with access to the system can therefore see the first and last names of the students and their email addresses, and will thus be able to message them directly.

Parents fear that the system can be easily hacked by pedophiles. "Most pedophiles in Israel are parents of children," said the father of a girl whose school transitioned to this online learning system.

"The moment someone acquires a password to the system and logs in, the possibilities are endless. As parents, we can't tell our children to be careful with the emails they receive on this platform. This is an educational platform. This is their classroom. And it's not just sexual exploitation that we are worried about. Phishing, spamming, and harassment are all real concerns," he said.

Ido Naor, CEO of cybersecurity company Security Joes, told Israel Hayom, "From a security check we conducted, it appears that the Education Ministry uses Google Cloud to store files shared with all students. Any user can easily access the user list by using Google's autocomplete feature."

Responding to the claim, the Education Ministry said that "access to the system is only possible after identification through the identity feature, and those are defined as closed learning environments that exclude outside participants. As part of the ministry's policy, students can communicate with each other within the district, and their information is not exposed outside the district's educational environment."

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Technical loophole in distance learning system beckons pedophiles, parents warn appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Special education will also resume on Sunday, as well as the sixth to eighth grades in Haredi schools.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Daycare centers the nursery schools will reopen on Sunday, May 10, and fourth to 10th-grade students will return to school by June 1 at the latest, the ministers decided.

The Education Ministry and the Health Ministry faced off over the decision, with the former accusing the latter of making "new demands at the last minute, to prevent the reopening of schools as planned."

Reports Friday said that the National Security Council wanted to postpone the return to schools by a week.

The Education Ministry is recommending that the government re-open elementary schools, but keep nursery schools closed because it would be unrealistic to expect the latter to be able to comply with Health Ministry regulations to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

"Our recommendation is to re-open first through third grades. We've split every class into two groups of 15 children. They won't have to wear masks during lessons, and they will have to maintain social distancing and avoid gathering in groups. We need to start with the schools and wait with the nursery schools," a senior Health Ministry official said.

Elementary school students will have to wear masks at recess and in the school corridors.

The Health Ministry realized that its recommendations that nursery schools and daycare centers be opened with strict limitations in place – groups of up to 15 children, who will be divided into groups of seven to eight children, to be separated for mealtimes, play, and assigned different sinks and bathrooms – would be very difficult to implement, and therefore recommends that the Education Ministry wait for the next stage of the exit strategy before re-opening nursery schools.

"With very young children, the rate of infection could be much higher. The same thing for daycares: seven to eight children. We would prefer five, but that doesn't square with the reality," the official said.

Meanwhile, parents, teachers, and daycare workers are confused about the Education Ministry's decision. Parents of young children cannot return to work full time unless educational frameworks are in place, but there are still many unanswered questions about how daycare centers and schools plan to handle the coronavirus threat.

One educational official said that "The Education Ministry is doing good work, and I admire it a lot, but there are a lot of questions and issues that the ministry doesn't have answers for. This has been a time of uncertainty, but the Education Ministry rushes to put out plans that haven't really been approved. It creates expectations on the part of the parents, teachers, and students. Everyone becomes stressed, including the schools, because they don't know how things will be implemented and a lot of questions remain unsolved."

According to the official, schools are having difficulty bringing the teachers back to work, since many teachers have young children of their own who have no one to take care of their children.

"So they'll call the doctor, say that they have a cough, and ask for sick days, which they'll get, because no doctor wants to take a risk," the official said. 

The post Education, Health ministries reach deal on re-opening schools appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.