About a week ago, teachers’ day was celebrated in schools. Parents brought sumptuous meals to school, students prepared exciting greetings and for a moment it seemed that there is no more lucrative and enjoyable job in Israel like teaching. But a moment later, when there was no more food left in the teachers ‘rooms in the city, it was possible to examine their true condition and discover that a wave of teachers’ departures was taking place recently.
New teachers who leave teaching in a short time (in the last 5 years it has been found that this is one in five teachers) and also older teachers, give up and decide to leave the profession.
Just does not make sense
“I was a middle school teacher for 3 years and in my third year I felt I was unable to continue. I was a full-time educator and teacher and did not reach NIS 6,000 net. “My husband looked at me sadly and told me that it just does not make sense that I am available to parents and children all day and endlessly matters and in the end, that is all I gain,” says a young teacher, who, as mentioned, abandoned teaching after only 3 years.
Committed to supporting the family
“I have not yet made a final decision to leave teaching altogether,” she clarifies, “I left the door open, but today I work much less hard and earn more, but that is not the big advantage. When I leave the office today, my work day really ends. There is no more. Messages and phones and preparing lessons for tomorrow and checking exams. There are no parent days and trips and different and weird activities in the afternoon. It’s a very significant change for me. The only thing I miss is the kids. I have a commitment to my family’s livelihood and with a starting teacher’s salary, I can not do that. “
Everything – except teaching!
This is a widespread phenomenon. Many students study teaching and imagine what it is like to teach in their own classroom, but in the first 5 years studies show that in the first five years in the profession, one in five teachers will retire from teaching. Moreover, Facebook has groups of teachers, for example the group “investing teachers, who when a young woman sometimes writes that she is undecided whether to study teaching, within two hours she will receive 200 responses from teachers, new and old, who call her to learn everything (!) Except teaching. Girls who are still in the group, but have already taken the step and left teaching in favor of another profession.The most surprising reactions are from teachers who write that they have been in the profession for over 30 years and have now decided, just before retirement, to look for work in another field.
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Loves the job but understands the leavers
“I work as a teacher and I love my job,” says a teacher from one of the six-year-old schools on the estate, “but I understand the frustration and I understand why young teachers do not continue. We feel we work hard, not just take over 35-40 students and convince them Learn quietly, but if you ask someone what they think of teachers, they will always talk about our vacations.We feel a lack of appreciation on the part of parents, students, sometimes even the administration, who do not back us up.
Of course there will be confrontations with students, but why not get respectful from the parents? I never understand that. More than that, instead of underestimating our work, if anyone so wants to enjoy the days off that teachers have, feel free to just study teaching and join the system. We always need more teachers. ”
Instead of moving forward, go backwards
Dr. Eyal Doron, Researcher, lecturer and developer of creative thinking, Who for the past decade has been working across the country with teachers, principals, schools and local authorities, understands the complexity that teachers encounter and hence also the departure of the profession.
“I have traveled in all kinds of countries and there are no better teachers in the world than the average in Israel, and so do principals. Our problem is not the end cases, but what happens on average. We see it going backwards. The status, the pressures, the status, everything is running backwards, up To an inconceivable situation. ”
Losing confidence
“Basically,” says Doron, “because of a lack of leadership and because of misconceptions over many years, the Ministry of Education has introduced parental involvement, and it does not allow the area to function. We see it everywhere, unless there is a principal with very strong leadership who does not give ”
The parents are not to blame
“The one who is to blame for this is not the parents. It’s like I’ll be a bridge designer and I’ll make round tables and ask the residents how to design the bridge. Like a doctor before surgery he will take all kinds of people and consult them how to operate. “When I am invited as a parent to participate, I get confused and lose faith. This is the first problem that happened here.”
When everything is important – nothing matters
“Another thing is that the teacher is actually a talent – this is the second mistake of the system. There are many goals and many tasks. Lots of regularities, advanced training. Then, when everything is important, nothing matters. When you want to get to lots of places, you get nowhere. There is endless attrition because Lots of tasks and goals, and it stems from a lot of years of complexity, of a very complex situation. We live in a complex society. Education, in the end it comes to the apricot, and there is no standard.It makes it very difficult to form a clear picture.
A radical and comprehensive change is needed
“In all this complexity comes the issue of teachers. If nothing much, much more extreme happens here – there will be no correction. In digital banking, autonomous cars, the direct insurance industry, very big revolutions are taking place in all areas. The world of education is moving very, very slowly. In general, the reality is that you can move either forwards or backwards, that’s the complex. ”
The world is going through huge revolutions and the education system is stuck in the 60s
“The last problem is matriculation. There is no correction or advice to the matriculation problem. Everything that is done is measured by being on the way to matriculation grade. It does not matter. It is important that the child gets so and so in math and everything else does not really matter. In the end I get 90 or 88 in math. Student does not get a grade for imagination, for problem solving, for creativity… In the end we were left with the same thing we had in the 60s.
The teacher entered this strange situation, with conditions that did not improve, with stressed parents – who shared them. Parents are already under pressure from seeing that the school looks like it did 60 years ago. It all depends on the teacher. “
Losing from all directions
“The teacher holds a job or a job and a half, with work around the clock and huge pressures, and financially the least rewarding. It’s a complete lose-lose, the loss is from all directions. The Ministry of Education is working step by step, with the aim being to solve everything at once.
My heart goes out to the teachers. My goal in life is for them to understand that they are talents and fly with their talent. Teachers need to be supported. “There are extreme cases of bad teachers, as there are in every profession, but there is also a lot of talent.”
Let’s profit from the disruption
“There needs to be radical changes in the structure of studies, salaries and more. I think the children have learned to be bored and manage themselves after the corona. So now they are being returned to the corridor and classroom? Give them half a week to manage themselves from home. Why return them to the furrow?” Let them move alone, learn from home two days a week.
Why not say: something happened – let’s take advantage of it. And as for the claims that have been heard a lot lately, that the children have developed emotional-social problems following the corona, I do not understand them, and again – we can and should take advantage of the disruptions that have been forced on us to our advantage. “Year after year, the Ministries of Education have not been able to improve the state of the education system, so it may be worth emphasizing that this is not a problem that has begun now, or with the Corona, or because of this or that Minister of Education.”
