Ministry of Education inspectors toured Beit Shemesh: looking for alternative classrooms

September 8, 2014   

The Ministry of Education is not giving up, and after yesterday's defeat in the Jerusalem District Court, the ministry's inspectors arrived today for a tour of Beit Shemesh.

The tour focuses on the city's Haredi educational institutions, and is intended to try to locate an alternative location for the students of the Mishkenot Daat school, in order to present it at the next hearing to be held in court. This was after the judge reprimanded the ministry representatives for not presenting an appropriate solution for the students.

A source in the Beit Shemesh municipality tells Haredim10: "They are probably trying to find vacant classrooms, to show that they can house 'Mishkenot Daat'" - this despite the fact that the municipality has already searched and failed to find such a place.

As we recall, in his decision last night, Judge Amnon Darel wrote: "The theoretical infrastructure that was established for the education system in Beit Shemesh, which is under the overall responsibility of the Ministry of Education and the municipality, does not provide an adequate response to the change in the composition of the population.

There is no appropriate and immediate response to the needs of the growing ultra-Orthodox population in Beit Shemesh - it finds itself suffering from overcrowded educational institutions located in buildings that are not suitable for it: residential apartments and mobile buildings, while the Ministry of Education even issues closure orders for these institutions.

On the other hand, due to demographic changes in Beit Shemesh, educational buildings used for state education are not fully populated with the number of students they can accommodate. The necessary process of adapting the education system, in its various streams, to the changing population flows in the city is far from progressing at the right pace.

""On the other hand - there are 100 students for whom it is unclear whether they have a place to study, where and under what conditions. Here it is worth mentioning that during the period of the temporary order, the students studied in tents. This is certainly not the only solution, but the mere existence of such a possibility that students study in tents - without minimal safety measures, and in the sun - is disturbing and requires appropriate consideration of the needs of those students.".

Mayor Moshe Aboutbul told Haredim10 yesterday that the need was known to the Ministry of Education: "There is no sleight of hand here. We approached the Ministry of Education several months ago and said that we must reorganize the institutions that are empty in old Beit Shemesh and the shortage in new Beit Shemesh. They also understand that institutions must be closed.".

אבוטבול סיפר על השיחה שקיים עם שר החינוך פירון לפני כשבוע. "היו טונים גבוהים בתחילת השיחה", אך סירב לפרט "משום כבודו וכבודי לא אפרט מה בדיוק נאמר, אבל מי שמכיר אותי יודע שאני האחרון שלא מחפש הידברות. "לצערי יש פער בין הדרישות שלו (של פירון – י.ה.), לשלנו, רק מי שנמצא בשטח יגיע למסקנות דומות לשלי, ולכן הזמנתי אותו לסיור להבין שהצדק מונח אצל הילדות".