The Education, Culture and Sports Committee, chaired by MK Yosef Taieb (Shas), convened on Tuesday for a debate on the Ministry of Education’s preparedness for distance learning against the backdrop of the war against Iran.
Ministry of Education Deputy Director General Eyal Ben Zaken detailed the measures the ministry has taken since the outbreak of the war, including opening an emotional support hotline, providing psychological services, opening Yahad centers for evacuees, and conducting distance learning, which the Education Minister announced as soon as the war began. Ben Zaken further reported that 48 hours before the war began, the ministry conducted a drill and learned lessons from it: “We arrived in a prepared state,” he said.
Ella Mozes, director of the Secondary Education Division at the Ministry of Education, said “In the war with Iran, the Ministry of Education opened 45 Yahad centers for 2,788 pupils who were evacuated from their homes, including 400 pupils who are entitled to special education services.” Mozes further reported that in the past week, distance learning took place in over 90% of homerooms. However, ministry representatives could not provide accurate data on actual pupil attendance in online classes, although they noted that teachers were instructed to phone pupils who are absent from Zoom sessions.
Mozes also noted that the emotional support hotline, which operates 24/7, has fielded 6,288 calls, and follow-up treatment is provided in most inquiries.
A Student and Youth Council representative said, “Is learning via Zoom effective at all? Maybe we should transition to individual learning in some subjects, in small groups for example.”
Committee Chair MK Yosef Taieb said, “Since the corona [pandemic], frontal instruction has been significantly harmed. I would have expected the Ministry of Education to examine the possibility of learning in capsules. In the periphery, and in many other places, there are no standard protected spaces in homes, and if there had been a framework of organized capsules, we would have provided better protection for the pupils.”
A Home Front Command representative said that as far as it was concerned, a green light was given for making educational institutions available to people who live nearby but do not have protected spaces in their homes.
