As elementary schools prepare to break for summer next week, parents are wondering whether the Ministry of Education’s “Summer School” program will run normally. For children in grades 1 through 3, there is a subsidized daily solution in July, except Fridays, usually until 1 p.m. But for many working families, extending care through afternoon programs until 4 p.m. can cost thousands of shekels a month.
Parents of students in grades 4 through 6 currently have no organized full July summer framework. For grades 7 through 9, the ministry has created a new program called “Summer Prep,” which is based on small-group remote learning run by local authorities. Even where summer programs have already been approved, it is still unclear who will staff them and whether students will meet their regular teachers or newly hired activity leaders.
The education system also has no clear answer yet for recovering missed class time in high schools, especially for 11th graders across the country who are under pressure ahead of their final matriculation exams. Because of the long-running disputes over teachers’ pay, one idea now being considered is remote learning with artificial intelligence.
The summer outlook remains uncertain because of the ongoing security situation. In the north, fighting continues and Home Front Command restrictions are still in force, so no approved educational activity has been possible there for a long time. In the rest of the country, conditions remain unpredictable, leaving parents to flood local government hotlines with questions they are answered only with, “We wish we knew.” The ministry said in its Hitoren portal that in Summer 5786 the “Kindergartens and Summer School” program will expand from kindergarten through 9th grade, with the ages 7 to 9 track operating as “Summer Prep,” and that the program is meant to maintain educational continuity, reduce war-related learning gaps, provide academic reinforcement, strengthen children’s emotional and social resilience, and ease parents’ burden, subject to ministry security rules, police directives and Home Front Command policy.
