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JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel reopened some schools on Sunday, but the attempt to return to normal due to the tranquility of the coronavirus was boycotted by several municipalities and many parents who mentioned poor government preparation.
A girl speaks on her cell phone as she arrives at her primary school in Sderot as it reopens due to the ease of restrictions that prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Israel May 3, 2020 REUTERS / Amir Cohen
Equipped with masks and hand cleaners, the first three grades of primary school and the last two grades of secondary school were able to return, redistributed into classes with a limit of 15 students to reinforce social distancing. If the move doesn’t trigger new infections, other grades and kindergartens may soon do the same.
Many parents breathed more freely by firing their children after caring for them for about six weeks, a massive home confinement that helped raise unemployment to 27% and cut 4% to 12% of daily GDP.
“We are excited and concerned at the same time, but we have to take the first step,” Hila Mizrachi, a 37-year-old teacher, told Reuters as she accompanied her own daughter to school.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government considered the reopening as voluntary as entire municipalities, including that of Israel’s commercial capital Tel Aviv and those of the country’s 21 percent Arab minority, announced that their schools would remain closed, for now.
“The plan being offered does not protect the health of children and teaching staff,” Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai said on Twitter. “We will not play by the rules of those who do not take responsibility.”
The decision to return to school was made on Monday and adjusted over the weekend. When the Israeli work week began on Sunday, a mayor of the city of Beersheba said he had not yet received the final guidelines from the Ministry of Education.
A study of the coronavirus cited by the government in its deliberations offered an avalanche of data and limited security for Israelis wondering if their elementary school students could infect family members. Children, according to the study, were 25% to 75% less contagious than adults.
In the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sector, which represents about 8% of Israel’s population and has seen disproportionately high outbreaks of coronavirus, grades 7-11 were reopened after rabbis found it safer, the education ministry said.
“A zigzag lesson” lamented the headline of the best-selling newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
The participation rate in major schools on Sunday was 60%, the Ministry of Education said, after many parents said they kept their children at home instead of watching them become “guinea pigs.”
“We are not forcing parents to send their children. Today we are not forcing local authorities to open up, “Education Minister Rafael Peretz told Radio Israel, soon predicting full compliance. “We will finally finish all this business in three or four more days with all the schools in the country on board.”
Israel, with a population of 9 million, has reported 16,193 coronavirus cases and 230 deaths. The number of new infections has been declining for the past week.
Written by Dan Williams; Maayan Lubell and Elaine Hardcastle edition
