In 10 days, a new school year is supposed to begin in Israel but many parents are still skeptical that it will in fact happen.
On Sunday, the coronavirus cabinet is scheduled to meet to review the details of a plan for opening the school year on September 1 with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warning last week that a closure would cause horrific damage to Israel’s economy.
We agree with Bennett about a lockdown. Israelis are unlikely to adhere to new restrictions after more than a year-and-half in this COVID-19 reality. Instead of bringing down infection rates, it will increase unemployment, economic hardships for small businesses and again undermine our youth’s growth.
But that doesn’t mean that the school year should necessarily open on September 1. The month of September has only a handful of school days due to the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot.
Based on the difficulties the Health Ministry has encountered in setting up rapid testing stations for youth - who are now required to regularly test under the Green Pass program - it is legitimate to wonder whether it is even worth sending over a million kids to school when tests are not readily available and for only a few days of studies.
Is it worth risking infections and quarantine for just a handful of days that are anyhow broken up that they don’t allow regular schooling?
“The issue of educating our children is one of the most important and sensitive, especially in this period,” said Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton on Friday. “Therefore, just as it is customary to vote on issues related to the economy, tourism, culture, etc., there is great importance to discussing and voting on the issue of education, as well.”
For now, schools are expected to open on time, despite the high level of daily COVID cases in the country - 7,692 cases were reported by the Health Ministry on Friday.
Prof. Ora Paltiel, an epidemiologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Hadassah Braun School of Public Health, explained to the Post’s Rossella Tercatin the arguments in favor and opposed to postponing the beginning of the school year.
“On the one hand, we are in the middle of a Delta outbreak, the community transmission is high and we know that this leads to outbreaks in schools and even children getting blamed for the outbreaks,” she said. “If schools open, there are going to be outbreaks, and many of them will need to enter quarantine. Therefore, maybe it could make sense to wait and let them shelter at home.”
At the same time, she added, children have been the group most affected by the pandemic – not by the disease itself, but from the measures taken against it.
This will be a tough decision. On the one hand, there is the need to attempt to return to normal and to put kids back in schools. On the other hand, if doing so for just a few days only spreads the virus and sends thousand to quarantine, the opposite will have been achieved.
Whatever the government ministers decide, it is important to announce this decision sooner rather than later. The last government - led by Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz - regularly fought about everything connected to corona, leaving decisions to be announced late at night the day before they were supposed to go into effect.
The meeting on Sunday gives the government an opportunity to properly explain the dilemma to the public - and mostly to parents who need to plan their work schedule - ahead of September 1. Parents will need time to prepare - either if school is beginning on time with all of the rapid testing it will require, as well as for the possibility that the school year is postponed and kids remain home for another month.
The coronavirus has disrupted many aspects of our lives and - as long as there are variants that can breach the vaccines - will continue to do so in the years to come. What governments need to do is find ways to prepare people as much as is possible for these disturbances. We understand the debate. Make the decision and inform the public in time.