The Minister of Education, Yifat Shasha-Biton was interviewed this evening (Tuesday) on News 12 and commented on the latest developments in the negotiations with the Treasury: “As far as the 4 billion that the Treasury comes and says is in its coffers, then 4 billion is not really 4 billion, there are a lot of things there that they brought in, which are not related to the teachers’ salaries, but they are included in the overall budgetary action.”
Bitton also added that “we are the ones who should give the professional answers within the salary agreement, and the Ministry of Finance should give the budgetary framework, say where we should aim and let the Ministry of Education do the work.”
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To the question of whether there is still reason for optimism regarding the crisis in education, she answered that “as long as we are talking there is reason for optimism, yesterday I sat down with the Minister of Finance, I presented him with an outline together with the CEO that bridges the gaps but that gives real answers to the real issues that we want within this agreement “.
Shasha-Biton stated that one of the problems is that “they put here a very nice magic number of NIS 9,000 as a starting salary, which is nice for a beginning teacher, but it is a smokescreen for the rest, where there is no horizon for development. We started the negotiations in January, and we should have had a signed wage agreement by now, I sat with you a few months ago and said that every day that passes deepens the wage crisis. This was not supposed to be conducted during an election period.”
The Minister of Education refused to address the issue of restraining orders, claiming that “the energies must be invested to sort out the salary agreement, there is nothing to talk about restraining orders at this time.”
Shasha-Biton also responded to the matter of the agreements reached with the chairman of the teachers’ organization, Ran Erez, and said that “the story here is not support for Ran Erez, but the agreements we reached regarding the reform of the baccalaureate, regarding the renewal of the system, so the reform of the baccalaureate is one of them, and the transition to five days in elementary and high schools. Now there is only one thing left – for the treasury to sign. The crisis in education is a national emergency.”