School year at risk: Teachers' strike will impact 2.4 million students

High schools will not start Sunday, September 1, and classes will be suspended, the teachers association announced late Saturday night.

Secondary Schools Teachers Association Chairman Ran Erez formally declared a strike for September 1 after negotiations over teachers’ salaries and contracts failed to produce an agreement.

Erez met with Local Authorities Chairman Haim Bibas and with Education Minister Yoav Kisch in a last-ditch effort to prevent the strike before it was officially declared. 

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich accused Erez of playing power games and appealed to teachers not to proceed with the strike.

Some 2.4 million students were originally slated to return to school on Sunday following the summer vacation, but most high school students will stay home.

The Israel Teachers Union announced that schools in certain northern and southern regions will be exempt from the planned strike due to the extenuating circumstances of the Gaza war and the attacks from Hezbollah.

In the South, the Sdot Negev, Sha’ar HaNegev, Sderot, Ofakim, Netivot, Merhavim, and Eshkol council areas will be excluded from the strike, and in the North, schools in Kibbutz Kabri and Majdal Shams, Western Galilee High School, and Nofey Golan High School will be exempt, according to their announcement.

October 7's effect on education 

The Education Ministry reported that about 514,000 students have registered for the upcoming school year at high schools and 335,000 at middle schools.

The teachers’ union has been in a deadlock in negotiations with the Education and Finance ministries for weeks, demanding retroactive wage increases and other benefits that they agreed upon before the start of the last school year but postponed due to the Hamas attack on October 7 and the war.

The union is also seeking a collective salary agreement, while the government has pushed for individual contracts for teachers amid a budgetary shortfall.

The Education Ministry faced a cut of NIS 38 million in July as a result of allocations to the war efforts.

Supporting the teacher community during strikes

In his statement announcing the strike, Erez said, " We will continue the struggle as long as necessary. We will take care of and support the community of teachers and administrators during this struggle.”

Speaking on Channel 13 over the weekend, Kisch accused Erez of “leading to a completely unnecessary strike. A year ago, we reached agreements, shook hands, and opened the year at exactly the same point in time as now. I kept all the commitments. I made sure that the entire budgetary framework in the Treasury was handed over to the teachers and that not one shekel would decrease despite the sanctions and the difficult year. We have an excellent agreement that is within the same budget framework; not even one shekel will decrease.”

On Saturday night, before heading to the late-night meeting with Erez, Kisch called the strike “irresponsible” and accused him of using students as “pawns.”

When asked if it was safe for students to return to school in the North while Hezbollah continues to attack, Kisch said, “This is the main challenge, and for that reason, we’re working closely with the Home Front Command and local authorities, and we’ll operate according to the Home Front command’s directives.”

David Brinn contributed to this report.