Survey Reveals Teaching Crisis Hits Israeli Public Schools, Ultra-Orthodox Education Remains Stable

A recent comprehensive survey conducted by the Menor Center through Geocartography Institute among 1,035 Israeli parents highlights a severe teaching shortage affecting mainly public schools, while ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) education maintains relative stability. According to the survey, 63% of parents nationwide reported cancellations of classes or entire school days last academic year due to a critical lack of teachers and kindergarten staff. The crisis is most acute in Hebrew state schools, where 77% of parents noted frequent cancellations, and 20% said lessons were canceled almost weekly. State religious schools also face challenges, with 67.6% reporting disruptions, and Arab state schools reported 54% cancellations. In stark contrast, only 33.7% of parents in the Haredi sector reported any interruptions, and a majority of 61.4% said their children’s schools experienced no cancellations at all, indicating a higher systemic resilience in ultra-Orthodox education.

These findings add to mounting academic criticism of the Ministry of Education’s handling of the crisis. Despite official claims that national staffing levels are about 99% and shortages are minimal, experts warn this masks the reality. Professor Itai Mizrahi from Northeastern University compared the situation to a severe shortage of surgeons in hospitals, where instead of improving conditions, the health ministry would rapidly certify anyone as a surgeon to fill gaps. He said, "In education, this quantitative shortage has turned into a qualitative one," emphasizing that reliance on raw data ignores the field’s urgent distress and the decline in teaching quality, akin to claiming there are no traffic jams because road lengths were measured.