Finance Ministry's Plan to Dissolve Education Ministry Aims to Rescue Israeli Teachers
Dr. Yaffa Buskila argues that the Israeli Finance Ministry's proposed reform to transfer education management from the national Education Ministry to local authorities is a vital step to save the teaching profession in Israel. She describes the Education Ministry as a bloated and inefficient body that fails in its core duties of teacher training, recruitment, and student education, instead consuming vast budgets without benefiting classrooms. According to Buskila, the ministry's bureaucratic overload and poor working conditions have severely damaged teachers' status and morale.
Buskila cites research from her book "The Status of Teachers in Israel: From Decline to Opportunity," which surveyed 192 educators. Ninety percent rated the teaching profession's status as low, with 89% blaming poor working conditions dictated by the ministry. Teachers report feeling overburdened with administrative tasks, insufficient resources, and lack of support, often having to provide basic supplies themselves. Additionally, 87.5% of educators identified parents as a major factor undermining their authority, with school leadership failing to protect teachers from intrusive parental demands.
The proposed reform would dismantle the outdated Education Ministry structure, transferring school management and teacher employment to municipalities while the state retains regulatory oversight. Buskila emphasizes that local authorities better understand their communities and can integrate formal and informal education more effectively. This change would eliminate conflicting directives from two bosses, reduce bureaucracy, and redirect funds from ministry overhead to schools.
Furthermore, local leaders are directly accountable to their voters and thus more motivated to support teachers, set boundaries with parents, and improve working conditions. The reform would leave measurement and evaluation to the national authority but return educational management to local hands, restoring respect and opportunity to the teaching profession and ending what Buskila calls the "new darkness" enveloping Israeli educators.
