High school students to strike if sanctions against Teacher's Union are not lifted

The National Student and Youth Council (NSYC) has announced that if sanctions against the Teacher's Union are not lifted, then high school students from around the country will go on a warning strike on Tuesday, September 12.

In a statement made on Friday, the NSYC said that students in Israel had been "trapped" in a struggle between the Teacher's Union and the Finance Ministry for over a year and that as a result they had been harmed in numerous areas.

"Israeli students have finished a week into the 2023/24 (5784) school year, and there is no longer stability in the system," the statement said.

NSYC also said that it had hoped that after an agreement on the salary outline for the Teacher's Union, the year would finally be routine with all the regular elements.

"We are giving the negotiations another and last chance and hope that the ongoing harm to the students will stop," said the NSYC about the current ongoing negotiations.

Stability for students

Chairwoman of the NSYC Sapir Mosafi: "An education system without educational assessment and value-based activities is not a stable education system. Every day that passes, thousands more students lose their trips to Poland and take the exams when in fact they have not yet received the grades from the past year, we will not agree to study like this."

The statement ended with "If the sanctions are not lifted by Monday evening, the National Student and Youth Council will go on a warning strike in the high schools on Tuesday, 12/9/23." 

This comes just a week after an agreement between the Teahcer's Union and the Education and Finance Ministries was reached to increase teacher salaries by NIS 2,000 a month while increasing their hours by one hour. This agreement was intended to last six years and then be renegotiated.