Education Strike Special Report: School Matters
A solidarity rally with over 100,000 people in attendance was held on 17 November 2007 in Tel Aviv to support Israeli teachers. Teachers across Israel have been on strike for 49 consecutive days, bringing the education system to a complete standstill. The nationwide strike has turned into a bitter and deeply entrenched dispute between the government and Israel’s teacher unions, and has sparked a national debate over declining education standards.
The Israeli public, which has been less than sympathetic to the demands of highly paid striking dockworkers and electric company employees, has been very supportive of the country’s teachers. Everyone accepts that the problems in the education system are severe, but there’s little agreement on how to address them. The main problems are:
Slipping standards
Israel still has one of the world’s top education systems, but student achievement has dramatically slipped. In the 1960s, Israeli students ranked near the top in international assessments in mathematics and science, but when the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released a report in 2002, Israel had slipped to 33rd out of 41 developed countries. Israelis fear that this could erode Israel’s reputation as a global centre for scientific innovation, and jeopardise its booming economy and social future (Israel’s technology sector represents 12% of Israel's GDP and more than a third of all exports). This sentiment was echoed last week by Aaron Ciechanover, the 2004 Nobel laureate in chemistry, who said that Israel’s most important resource was “brain power,” which Israelis have to foster.
Low pay
That teachers in Israel are underpaid is a truism accepted by all. “Teachers in this country are getting shafted,” said Jody Zaviv last week, a Jerusalem property manager whose 14 and 16-year-old sons have been home for over six weeks due to the strike. The OECD confirms that teachers’ wages in Israel are the lowest in the industrialised world; with teachers at the highest level of promotion earning up to 45% below the average. After three years of university, starting teachers can only expect to earn about 3,300 shekels (£400 per month), before taxes, which is less than the rent on a one-bedroom apartment in Tel Aviv, and 6,000 shekels (£723) after twenty years of work. According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (July 2007), this is over £200 below the average Israeli salary.
Education Budget
Critics of government policy want more money put into the education budget to re-address the budget cuts imposed during the tenure of former right wing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. But even though national spending on education as a share of GDP has dropped over the last few years from 9.3% in 2002 to 8.3% last year, it is still comparatively high in comparison to OECD standards (the share of GDP in the UK is 5.9% and the average for OECD countries is 5.8%). However, annual spending per secondary school student is £580 less than the international average.
Budget cuts have led to bigger classes and shorter school days. Classes average 38 to 40 students and weekly hours in schools has dropped from 45 hours in 1960 to just 30 hours today. Under time pressure, many teachers feel they have little choice but to focus on exam skills and say that everything is now geared towards passing the bagrut (equivalent to A-Level exams), rather than about equipping students with the necessary knowledge and tools for life. To make up for this, there is a widening network of private tutoring and parent-subsidised schools, which only exacerbate the disparities in the education system.
Glorified babysitters
There has been a gradual erosion of teachers’ status over the years, leading to a widespread sense that their profession attracts mainly unmotivated and uncharismatic people. Many students have the impression that those who choose to teach them do so as a sort of “last resort”; thus perpetuating the vicious cycle whereby teachers feel unappreciated and students feel they aren't getting the best education. This has led to a shortage of newly qualified teachers.
Many Israelis blame the crisis on the government for acting too slowly. A government-appointed task force submitted sweeping recommendations three years ago, but only a few elements have been applied. With education now dominating the domestic political landscape, the government is trying to use the dispute as an opportunity to implement real change the education system needs; it doesn’t just want to agree on a pay rise alone.
Negotiations
The negotiations have been between the head of the Secondary School Teachers’ Association (SSTA), Ran Erez, the Education Minister Yuli Tamir, and the Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On. The Union of Local Authorities initially mediated between the government and the SSTA, but after three weeks of tough fruitless negotiations, its chairman, Adi Eldar, quit in frustration at the beginning of November. This instigated the lowest point between the negotiating parties as the government petitioned the National Labor Court to try and force teachers back to work. The final hearing was indefinitely postponed, however, after Ofer Eini, the Chairman of the Histadrut (Israel’s TUC), offered to mediate between the parties and managed to salvage the negotiations.
With Ofer Eini using his great leverage with the government (threatening a national-wide strike along the way), both sides have agreed that teachers will receive an 8.5 percent wage raise for two hours more work per week, as well as an immediate one-off bonus payment when they return to work. In addition, the government has also promised a £200 million increase for education in next year’s budget, and has also committed to an additional £1000 million over the next five years to boost wages and embark on some much needed school refurbishments.
All parties are due to meet over the next week to try and thrash out the other bones of contention; mainly: the number of students per class, and the restoration of slashed teaching hours.
Cost of the strike
While the negotiations continue, the hidden costs of the strike keep growing. The month-long secondary school strike has already cost the Israeli economy over £437 million. According to the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies, an independent economic policy think tank, the school strike will result in lifetime losses in income and declining capabilities in academic subjects for thousands of Israeli students.
The cost to Prime Minister Olmert, however, is plane to see; the strikes could not have come at a worse time. Confidence in his premiership is already low ahead of the Annapolis Middle East peace conference in America, and he faces heavy criticism for not getting personally involved with the strike negotiations. On Monday, Knesset member Avishay Braverman called Olmert to help resolve the situation, and said “Annapolis is important, but finding a solution to this strike is more important.” The dispute could dog Olmert all the way to America as there have been reports that an American teachers’ union plan to demonstrate at the start of the conference.
Everyone is hoping that the crisis will be resolved before Annapolis, including secondary school students desperate to return to school. “I've had enough of loafing,” one student told the mass rally last Saturday.
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