Israel Faces Challenges in Fully Implementing Long School Day Law Amid Criticism

Nearly 30 years after Israel enacted the Long School Day law in 1997, aimed at extending school hours to enhance learning, reduce gaps, and provide enrichment, its full implementation remains incomplete. Originally intended to be fully applied by 2000, the law has seen repeated delays, primarily due to its high annual cost of about one billion shekels. Currently, 354,827 students across 1,732 kindergartens and 879 schools participate, with weekly hours set at 41 for schools, 37 in "New Horizon" framework schools, and 45 in kindergartens, including meals provision.

Education professionals criticize the program for failing to improve academic achievements without investments in teaching quality, smaller classes, and meaningful enrichment. The Ministry of Education states it must comply with the law unless the Knesset legislates changes. Teachers’ union secretary-general, Yaffa Ben-David, called the program a failure, highlighting that students become too tired after five to six hours to learn effectively, and teachers are burdened with non-teaching duties like food distribution and cleaning, which she says undermines their professional role and leads to burnout. She proposed limiting full-time teachers’ classroom hours to 13:30 without salary cuts until systemic reforms occur.

Experts note that Israeli students already study more hours annually than the OECD average, with 941 hours in elementary and 1,002 in middle school compared to OECD averages of 804 and 909 hours respectively. Research suggests additional hours only benefit students when used for small group learning, personal support, enrichment, and active learning. The Druze sector, where all schools operate under the long day model, shows notable academic success, but experts caution against expanding the program without adjustments due to infrastructure limitations and teacher shortages.

The debate now centers on how to invest resources effectively to meet the law’s original goals of reducing educational disparities and improving quality without overburdening students and teachers or continuing a program whose benefits have not been comprehensively evaluated.