Parents claim that because of the war and its consequences, their ability to work is impaired, and yet the payments they are supposed to pay for the children's education do not decrease accordingly.
"My son has been receiving enrichment studies in Kiryat Ata for the second year," says the mother of a student at an elementary school in Kiryat Motzkin and continues, "Last year, the new center for the gifted in Kiryat Ata was free of charge. This year we received a message that due to the gap between the Ministry of Education's funding for the students being transported to the gifted frameworks and the amount of expenses For transportation, it was decided that the cost of travel will be shared between the municipality and the parents. From the letter we received, it appears that the parents will bear 50% of the travel costs.
We were told that we have to pay 20 NIS per day for my son to travel in the shuttle subject to the number of children in the shuttle. The problem is that you can't even know in advance what the payment will be, but only after the children have already traveled. I think the minimum is to inform parents of the payment amount before that the child uses transportation, so that parents can consider whether it is appropriate for them to use transportation or not."
The parents: Did we agree to give a loan to the afterschoolers?
According to the mother, another problem is related to the payment for the after-school children. "Until today, we have paid full payment for the after-hours every month," she says and continues, "but from the date 22/09/24 until the beginning of this week 27/10/24, the after-hours did not work. We received an update from the community center company, that we will receive a refund for the days on which The afternoon tea did not work. The problem is that they continue not to operate the after-school programs, and they don't stop charging us money. More than that, the community center company published how it intends to return the money to the parents.
The days when the centers did not operate in September will be offset from the November payment. For the days when the facilities did not operate in October, a reduced payment will be charged in three equal payments in the coming months of December, January and February. Parents saw this and were outraged. We paid money in September and October for a product which we did not receive.
Why are we supposed to get the refund after a few months? One of the mothers asked if somewhere in the agreement between us and the community center society it was stipulated that we would give them interest-free loans? I'm not even talking about my case, that because my son at this stage has one day of school a week, we don't have an afternoon at all."
What are the mental effects on students who attend school one day a week?
According to the mother, because of studying in capsules at the school where her son attends, her son attends one day a week and her ability to earn a living is greatly affected. "In addition to the fact that it is almost impossible to work, when my son is at home almost all week, because there are not enough protected spaces in his school, I am afraid that he does study one day a week, but there are schools in Kiryat Motzkin where the students study more days a week at school and gaps are created between the students
When my son learns from home on Zoom, the school day is shortened and in any case it does not have the same value as a school day. I am very afraid of both the disparities within the kiriya and the disparities in front of cities where learning continues as usual. Another problem that bothers me no less is the mental state of the students who study only one day a week. How will children in elementary school, who have already dealt with Corona and are after a year of war, deal with sitting at home continuously without going out and meeting friends? I have no doubt that a stage will come when we will have to deal with the consequences of these things."
Kiryat Motzkin Municipality: There are schools that operate in a limited way in order to protect the lives of the students
The municipality of Kiryat Motzkin stated in response that there are several schools in the city that do not meet the protection conditions established by the Home Front Command, therefore they are currently operating as part of capsules.
"Unfortunately, it is not possible to find protective solutions in a short period of time, and therefore these schools were forced to operate a reduced learning format in order to preserve the children's lives. We are working with the school administrations to find solutions that will allow continuous learning as much as possible, and as you can see there are schools that operate in a reduced format in which the students who They couldn't come at all the last time we were in level 2, now they come 2-3 times a week to the schools. We will continue to look for alternative solutions that will allow those children to have a continuous educational framework, which meets the protection conditions established by Pekar.
The responsibility for financial compensation and the operation of the frameworks rests with the Ministry of Finance.
The municipality also stated that the community association is a government company budgeted by the Ministry of Finance. "The municipality operates as an executive arm of the state in the field of informal education. In national emergencies (such as the current war or the corona crisis), the responsibility for financial compensation and the operation of the frameworks rests with the Ministry of Finance.
With the transition to level 2, the local network of community centers, with the full backing of the municipality, decided to take immediate action to return the informal education system to normal. Although the issue of social security is the responsibility of the state, the local network and the municipality decided to guarantee the social rights of the assistants, in order to allow A quick return to routine for our children. We understand the parents' frustration regarding the delay in credits and sympathize with the difficulty. The local network serves as a conduit for the transfer of funds from the state to parents. Making the credits depends on receiving the budgets from the Ministry of Finance. We are in continuous contact with the Ministry of Finance to speed up the processes. We will regularly update on any development on the subject. The community center staff is available for questions and inquiries on the subject."
The municipality also explained the change in the cost of transportation for gifted students: "Until recently, the Authority financed the transportation of gifted students and their close escort during the trip to and from the study centers.
On the other hand, the students who belonged to the outstanding program had to pay 50 percent of the transportation cost out of their own pockets.
In light of the fact that these two frameworks are essentially the same and both are regulated by the Ministry of Education, it was decided to charge the gifted students half the cost of traveling to the study centers, just as the students in the outstanding program pay. The authority will continue to finance the travel attendants as it has done so far."