Were these protest votes from seminar directors that led to a rethink on the issue and the cancellation of teaching quotas for the coming year?
Officials at the Ministry of Education firmly clarify: "The issue will be addressed, but not in the coming year. The professional officials decided to do this 'in a nice way' only after talking with the seminar directors and after forming understandings with them.".
Although these sources do not officially clarify this, the Ministry of Education has also confronted seminary administrators with all its might on the issue of discrimination on ethnic grounds - the flagship issue of the Ministry of Education in general and of Education Minister Rabbi Dr. Shai Piron in particular. "We will save the ammunition for this struggle. There is no point in opening a front on the issue of teaching quotas - especially since it is incumbent on seminary administrators to turn this into a religious issue, and a religious war, even though in our view it is a technical budgetary issue.".
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When asked whether this is a change of direction for Yesh Atid as a party, or for the minister himself - who prefers not to confront an issue that could be portrayed as a religious war, I was answered: "The Ministry of Education is acting solely in its own name, and in general, this is a professional decision, not a political one.".
They will breathe a sigh of relief.
There is no doubt that many seminar directors will now breathe a sigh of relief, following the postponement of the decree.
As we recall, we reported that in the upcoming school year, the Ministry of Education is planning to cut approximately 70% from the granting of teaching study permits in seminaries. This step was considered in the past, during Gideon Sa'ar's time as Minister of Education, but the Haredi MKs, mainly the 'Degel Hatorah' MKs, who were in the coalition at the time, vetoed it.
If the move were to be implemented this year, the seminaries would not be able to train many of the girls who have already been accepted into the institutions, as a result of the cuts. Another practical significance of the move is the dismissal of many teachers.
Behind the scenes of the story is a significant financial story: in some seminars, parents are required to include their daughter in the teaching track as well. That is, in addition to professional studies such as architecture, software engineering, etc., parents are required to pay for the teaching track. Over the years, many parents have been outraged by this, claiming that it is a large expense that they have difficulty meeting, since each major costs over 10,000 shekels per year, at the very least, while majors such as graphics, etc. reach almost 20,000.
Budget doubling
Why is this profitable for the seminar management? The explanation is simple. In this way, the seminar 'wins' a double budget – a budget from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism for the professional major (computer graphics, etc.), and another budget from the Ministry of Education for the teaching major. However, it should be noted that there are seminars that did not take the double budget.
The Ministry of Education, as mentioned, is trying to put an end to this phenomenon. In addition to the heavy payment imposed on parents, this also created inequality in other areas: Seminaries that benefited from the increased budgets allowed themselves to organize a vacation camp for seminary students free of charge. Girls from other seminaries were forced to pay hundreds of shekels, just because their institution did not benefit from the same budget increase.
MK Nissim Ze'ev, whose wife runs a seminary for girls in Jerusalem, told Haredim10 that their seminary has never used this "unfair" method, and has never doubled budgets or forced girls to take one path or another. He even intends to examine the issue, submit an urgent proposal to sort it out, and perhaps even take the story to the High Court of Justice.
