[etni] [FWD: The Arutz Sheva version of the Dovrat Report

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 From: Henry Mullish <hqm2011@xxxxxxx>
 Subject: The Arutz Sheva version of the Dovrat Report
 
 Revolution in Israel's Schools!
 Economy/Society
 
Shorter school-weeks, longer school-days, shorter summer vacation, full
teaching days -
these are some of the education reforms proposed by the Dovrat
Commission. 
The details were publicized today. The rough copy of the Dovrat report
publicized today 
includes a recommendation that was not included in its earlier version
and that
is that small schools should not receive public funding. The minimum  
number of students required for public funding according to the 
Dovrat recommendations is 400 for high schools and 200 for elementary 
schools. This would lead to the closing of a large number of hareidi-
religious schools as well as others dealing with special sectors
The report calls for a raise in teachers stature including  
supplementing their frontal teaching hours with other school-related 
activities and one-on-one work with students. Their salaries and
training level will be raised, but many teachers will also be fired.
The teacher unions currently object to the plan.
Among other proposed Dovrat recommendations - a five-day school week
(but see below) - no more than 35 pupils in a class - changes in the 
organization of regional educational authorities - the transfer of some
authorities from the Education Ministry to local school principals - 
higher subsidies for lower socio-economic classes - and more
 
Other features of the Dovrat Report
* The school day will end at 4 PM=2C and teachers will be required to
stay the entire day
* Free public education will be granted starting from age 3
* Elementary schools will include Grades 1-6, and secondary schools
 will include Grades 7-12. Junior high schools will be fazed out
* Some 15,000 teachers will be fired, while the remainder will receive 
higher salaries and improved conditions - will work longer hours, and
will be required to undergo more intense teacher training
* The mandatory curriculum will be expanded and more clearly defined
* Teachers will teach frontally 23-28 hours, and will fill in their 40
 hour work weeks with individual instruction and other school-related
activities. The 40-hour week of teachers of specific subjects will be 
divided between two neighboring schools
* The ten-week summer vacation will be cut down to one month, school 
will start on Aug. 20,there will be a winter vacation of two weeks
 
The Chanukah vacation will be cut down from a week to one day, Pesach
vacation will be cut down from three weeks to two - the High Holiday
vacation will run from Yom Kippur until after Sukkot.
 
Rabbi Shai Peron, principal of the Yeshurun Ulpanah (Girls=27 High 
School) in Petach Tikvah and one of the some 60 members of the Dovrat
Commission, explained to Arutz-7 today what he sees as one of the main
objectives of the reforms - To make the school into the heart of our
educational work in Israel. There will be a long school day, with
teachers who spend 40 hours a week in school, investing quality time 
in personal relationships with each student. The teacher won't always
be rushing, and will be able to meet with students and parents with 
leisure, or hold meetings. In addition, the schools will be smaller, 
 with special programming and volunteer work as part of the school day.
 
A major feature of the Dovrat Report is the five-day school week, to
be supplemented by extra-curricular activities on Friday. These will
be funded by parents and by local governments. Opponents of the plan 
fear that in areas where parents cannot afford the extra activities,
the students will be idle, leading to an increase in crime. The public 
religious school system strongly opposes most of the Dovrat Reforms,
chiefly because of this problem. If in fact the religious system
manages to deflect the pressure and remain open on Friday,leaders of 
the public-secular school system fear that many students who cannot
afford Friday activities will stream to the religious school system

Rabbi Peron said the objections within the religious school system to
a five-day school week are based on a misconceptio. The
recommendations don't say there won't be school on Friday, but merely
 that there won't be publicly-funded school on Friday. There are many
other sources, aside from the parents, that can be found to pay for

Friday classes - private associations as exist today,  the Religious 
Education Authority, local government, and many others.

Regarding the hareidi sector, Rabbi Peron said he expects it to be
integrated into the public system within 10-15 years. These things
take time,but I know that many of the hareidi schools already want to
adopt the math and English requirements as set by the Education
Ministry.Everything has to be done with dialogue and understanding,
not by coercion.
 
 Henry Mullish


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