Education, Careers & Professional News
Education Ministry Capitulates To The Teachers
Teachers lay-offs are cancelled, and the Dovrat education committee reforms are being softened.
The heads of the teachers unions reached an agreement in principle with Ministry of Education director general Ronit Tirosh yesterday. The agreement cancels the pink-slips for teachers, and establishes an incentives package for teachers who chose to retire under preferential terms.
If the lay-offs are actually cancelled, the teachers will agree to return to the negotiating table to discuss implementing education reforms during the 2005-06 school year.
Yesterdays agreement in principle does not explicitly mention the Dovrat reform, merely stating that reforms will be implemented. The teachers unions perceive this to mean that the Ministry of Education is backing away from implementing the Dovrat reform. The teachers unions claim that they are prepared to discuss implementing education reforms, but did not explicitly mention the Dovrat report.
Sources inform Globes that the incentives package demanded by the teachers unions includes a 10% higher pension for teachers who take early retirement, an adapting period of several months for retiring teachers, and a high salary level for establishing pensions.
The parties agreed to discuss four subjects: teachers time at school, the number of frontal teaching hours, flexible employment of teachers, and salaries.
The Ministry of Finance is expected to respond to the unions today regarding the incentives package, which is estimated at several hundred million shekels.