Israel Leaves Schools Open In The Meantime Despite Increased Infection

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — After a protracted meeting between Prime Minister Netanyahu and senior health ministry officials, the prime minister decided to keep all schools open in the meantime except for those in which infected persons have been discovered. Health Minister Yuli Edelstein had proposed closing all Jerusalem high schools in the wake of the coronavirus outbreaks in a number of Jerusalem schools, while outgoing Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar Siman Tov maintained that all Israeli high schools should be closed.

The prime minister’s office announced that “in a discussion regarding the educational system the data as well as the steps taken so far were reviewed. The prime minister asked for further data and requested an investigation of how pupils could receive superior protection against further infection. The discussion will continue tomorrow and on the basis of all the details which will be presented, the prime minister will decide about the educational system.”

Individual towns and cities have not waited for a government decision and decided on their own to take steps to curb the spread of the virus. The Tel Aviv and Givatayim municipalities told principals that they are authorized to conduct distance learning. In one large Tel Aviv school with 1500 pupils, parents and teachers voted to maintain distance studies until the end of the week.

The Branco Weiss network of schools decided to created small capsules within the schools with some pupils at home and some in schools in order to maintain social distancing. Sigal Moran, the director of the network said that “it’s impossible to maintain social distancing in classes of 30 pupils so we decided to split classes in some of our schools into  school groups and home groups.”