Creating stability for students during COVID-19

• Published date: 30 September 2021
• Author: DUDI FATIMER
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

A variety of attempts were made along the way to get a handle on the spread of disease so that Israeli schoolchildren could continue their education – including learning in small groups, learning remotely on Zoom, holding hybrid classes with some children present and some joining from remote locations, reducing the number of subjects being taught, recording sessions so that they could be watched anytime, anywhere, and holding classes outdoors.

Now, in a new Health Ministry program, pupils will undergo serological testing with the goal of identifying those with a high level of antibodies, meaning that they had at some point been infected with the virus without knowing it. These individuals would then receive a Green Pass, which would exempt them from having to isolate at home after coming into contact with those testing positive. This would mark a change from when school recently opened on September 1, in which children under the age of 12 were required to show negative results from an at-home COVID-19 test before being allowed to enter school grounds.

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The new program also requires that all teaching staff in schools and kindergartens comply with the Green Pass system, with students vaccinated on school grounds, subject to parental permission. In addition, in cities designated "red," any class in middle and high schools in which fewer than 70% of students are vaccinated will have all lessons taught virtually.

For all schools throughout the country, when one child tests positive, a "green class" model would be implemented. This means that all students found to be positive must enter isolation, and the rest of the class must do a PCR test. In addition, children in these classes will need to wear masks inside the school, and classes would be held in an open space or at least in a way so that reduces students' proximity to each other.

Yet there is uncertainty hovering over the new initiative as it is put in place. Disagreements between governmental officials and Education and Health ministry representatives, and frequent amendments to the initiative, are leading to great concern among teachers and school principals, who are finding it quite difficult to imagine what the upcoming school year will bring.

"We are entering yet another year of school in the shadow of COVID-19," explains Orna Weinberg, principal at Hagomeh, a lower...