Knesset Education Committee Chair Michael Melchior (Labor-Meimad) called on all the relevant parties to enter into negotiations to reduce school vacations after a meeting on the subject Monday.
"Vacations for pupils have gone beyond reason. It has become very hard for parents, and the vacations become dangerous for the children who run around without supervision or purpose. The education committee concluded that negotiations between representatives of the Treasury, the Teachers and the Parents Association will begin within two weeks in order to come to an agreement upon solution," he said.
The meeting was called in light of a petition circulated by Ramat Gan resident Yeara Yeshurun and signed by 4,000 people calling for action on the issue. Yeshurun says the status quo cannot continue.
She told the committee, "I despair over the vacations. I work in an Internet company and I have 12 vacation days a year. In contrast, my daughter has between three to four months of vacations.
"I believe that the state must provide supplementary frameworks... This is a social step which will help not only parents but also the economy. Now, mothers can't work because they have to pick up their kids from camp at 1 p.m., and a move like this could help more and more mothers enter the work force."
Education Ministry representatives also acknowledged pedagogic issues in the length of vacations. Sarah Royter, head of elementary school education at the ministry, told the committee: "The holidays are long vacations. I recognize and understand this. The fact that a child gets to first grade for two days and then goes on holiday vacation is not good pedagogically either. The whole idea of vacation for the day after holidays must be abolished and summer vacation should be shortened by two weeks."
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