A new initiative announced this week by the Tekuma Directorate, together with the Finance and Education Ministries, would offer grants of up to 72,000 shekels to teachers in needed fields who move to the Gaza envelope. The columnist says the plan looks heroic and Zionist on paper, but in practice is only a small bandage on a bleeding wound, and it misses the real crisis in Israeli education.
According to the piece, the core problem for teachers in the state system is not geography but status. Teachers face constant pressure from parents, chronic dissatisfaction, and heated WhatsApp groups that judge every minor incident. During a prolonged war, the article says, social tensions and violence have intensified across public life and have entered classrooms, making teaching difficult, frightening, and often humiliating.
The writer argues that the state education system has lost the prestige it once had, unlike in the ultra-Orthodox and religious-Zionist sectors, where teaching is still viewed as a sacred mission. To truly strengthen schools in the Gaza envelope and nationwide, the state should cut bureaucracy, protect teachers from violence, and restore respect to the profession rather than relying on one-time relocation bonuses.
The article also says this kind of local incentive has failed before, including in Eilat, and tends to deepen gaps because stronger authorities can offer better enrichment and training programs. Drawing on experience in philanthropic foundations, the writer says even generous stipends and attractive conditions did not bring in enough quality staff, because the problem is structural. The piece concludes that only when the system stops being degrading and becomes a place where teachers can make a real impact will strong educators return to the classroom, in the Gaza envelope, the center, and elsewhere. The author identifies herself as the CEO of the Posen Foundation and chair of Bina, the Jewish Social Movement.
