Former education minister Gideon Sa’ar introduced a reform called Oz Latemurah which is due to begin next year. The new program offers high school teachers higher wages in return for longer work hours. While many chareidi teachers like the idea of getting more money, many others claim that longer hours will interfere with the raising of their families.
Hopes of compromise have been dashed by a Supreme Court rejection of an appeal submitted by the Bais Chana Institutions Chabad in Yerushalayim. The court ruled that no distinction will be made between chareidi and general education.
The Agudas Yisroel Moetzes consented to the reform after two meetings. Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman has not yet issued a decision and many school directors are attempting to delay implementation of the reform by an additional year.
David Steger – Matzav.com Israel
I read up on it in the Chareidi Hebrew media. It’s basically insisting that the teachers stay longer hours in the school, even without teaching. These are hours when they can’t even reach the parents (they’re available later in the afternoons and evenings) which is an integral part of being a teacher, so it doesn’t reduce the hours of school-related work they still have to do, after getting home several hours later. In order to stay later, they have to pay babysitters, household help, prepared food, to compensate for coming home later. The per hour pay for those extra hours at the school building, is much lower than what they’ve been getting for the morning hours, leaving them with just above minimum wage for all the hours in school, and still nothing for the hours they put in at home. Attendance in the afternoon is mandatory even on days when the students aren’t there, such as when they go home Rosh Chodesh or have a tiyul. Now you tell me, is this good or not? I think it’s pretty obvious what the answer is.