Batia Katar
Photo: Ronen Boideck
Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal
Photo: Niv Calderon
Most Sderot schools unfortified
Hundreds of local children not enrolled in schools due to fear of Qassam rockets
Only four out of nine schools in Sderot have been completely fortified, despite an order by the High Court of Justice to complete the fortification of all schools in the town by the beginning of the school year.
As a result, many of Sderot’s children have not enrolled in the town’s schools due to the threat of Qassam rockets.
According to Miriam Sasi, head of the education department at the Sderot Municipality, hundreds of names have “disappeared” from the municipality’s student records since last year.
“It’s two weeks before the beginning of the school year, and there are still many students that finished kindergarten but have not yet enrolled in first grade,” Sasi said. “We’re trying to locate them,” she added.
At present, some 150 kindergarten graduates have not enrolled in the town’s elementary schools. Only 3,000 children are expected to enroll in Sderot’s schools, as opposed to 3,491 last year, according to data by the Education Ministry.
Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal has refused to allow children to enroll in schools outside the town.
In order to deal with the problem, schools maybe be merged, as in the case of Rabin Elementary School and Gil Elementary School. Children who have enrolled in Rabin will be moved to Gil, which has been fortified, and the faculty of the two schools will merge.
Batia Katar, head of Sderot's local parents committee, has recently sent out letters to the town’s families informing them of the committee's intention of launcing a school strike if the situation did not change.
She criticized the Education Ministry, saying it had abandoned Sderot’s children for seven years. “We intend on striking indefinitely, until the Education Ministry finds a solution that will guarantee our children’s safety,” Katar said.
