Was it the public criticism that led to a change from the original plan or was there really no change and it remained the same? The Ministry of Education is sending out quite contradictory messages regarding the summer camp - 'camps of friendship', which the Friendship Foundation, among other things, intended to fund.
During the recent period, the Ministry of Education has been criticized, mainly in the Haredi media and from various rabbinical circles, following the foundation's support for kindergartens. This is in addition to the criticism that Haredi schools do not benefit from these kindergartens. At the same time, it was clear to all those complaining about the discrimination, including MK David Azoulay, who even threatened to appeal to the High Court of Justice, that even if the Ministry of Education decided to fund kindergartens for the Haredi public, the vast majority of schools would refrain from taking the budget, and this was in light of the involvement of the Friendship Foundation.
This morning, on Galts, reporter Yair Shreki revealed a document from the foundation, proving that the foundation will intervene in the content and messages of the summer camps. "To discover new cultures and learn from them to get to know the customs of other peoples.".
The Ministry of Education responded by saying that "there is no intervention," but it seems that the exposure caused a rethink there. Later, it was reported on the Galatians that the ministry decided to forgo the fund's budget, totaling ten million dollars.
So is there intervention or not?
An appeal by 'Haredim 10' to the Ministry of Education resulted in the following response.
""The "Big Vacation Schools" program will involve approximately 180,000 students. The program is part of the ministry's policy, "Educators Around the Clock," according to which responsibility for children and youth does not only exist during the school year, but also during the vacations. The goal is to ensure that children and youth have a safer vacation filled with enriching activities.
In order to allow additional students to enjoy valuable and meaningful activities, it was determined that the Ministry of Education and local authorities will jointly finance all activities of the "Schools of the Great Vacation", in grades 1 and 2, including the pilot for 30,000 students in grades 3-5 living in peripheral communities. In addition, the Friendship Foundation will designate the budget that it initially planned to allocate to the "Schools of the Great Vacation" for the establishment of the "Friendship Village". This is a special experiential complex that will operate separately from the Ministry of Education program and will be designated for children with special needs, children with serious illnesses, children from peripheral areas, and more. The "Schools of the Great Vacation" program will continue as usual without any changes.
So will the foundation fund it, or not? - I tried to understand.
""The summer camps - no, but it will invest in summer camps for children who are not included in the program, and in essence the program will be expanded.".
And if, I asked, hypothetically, the High Court of Justice were to oblige the Ministry of Education to fund kindergartens for the Haredi public as well - would the foundation fund it or not?
Answer - not yet.
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