Is there a solution? Thousands of teachers and kindergarten teachers who flew abroad for Hanukkah will not be able to teach

December 6, 2021   

Returning to school after Hanukkah: The Ministry of Education expects a shortage of about 3,000 kindergarten teachers - including hundreds of ultra-Orthodox kindergarten teachers. The vaccine for children aged 5-11 is recommended by doctors: a special response for parents These are teaching staff who flew abroad during the Hanukkah holiday, and due to the mandatory isolation that applies to everyone who returns from abroad, they will not be able to attend school. According to the Ministry of Health, there are currently 2,908 teachers in isolation and another 165 teaching staff who are active COVID-19 patients. According to a report in Israel Hayom, the Ministry of Education stated that they are preparing to place substitutes in educational institutions where these teachers and kindergarten teachers work. Education Minister Yifat Shasha Biton requested today at a government meeting to cancel the mandatory isolation for vaccinated teachers, in light of the factual infrastructure that has accumulated regarding the coronavirus. Last week, the Secretary General of the Teachers' Union, Yaffe Ben David, also requested that vaccinated teachers who flew abroad be exempted from the mandatory isolation. In a letter to Minister Shasha Biton, Ben David noted that school principals claimed that they had no solution to the many absences of teaching staff expected after the holiday. "Even in routine, there are not enough substitutes to replace the teaching staff who will be in isolation upon their return from abroad.".