Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday, that nursery school and kindergartens will reopen starting next week - prompting several private nursery schools and kindergartens to announce they will remain closed despite the government's decision.
While the Health Ministry’s regulations state that children aged 3-6 would be in groups of no more than 15 in order to comply with social distancing standards, several organizations opposed the decision claiming it could not be applied to all age groups and would put their staff, and their business at risk.
According to the ministry's decision, half the children would attend nursery schools on Sunday through Tuesday and the others on Wednesday through Friday alternating days each week.
Education Minister Rafi Peretz says the move comes “as part of a gradual return of the entire education system.”
“Parents will return to their jobs restarting the economy while children would resume their pre-coronavirus lives, all with the maximum adherence to the Health Ministry guidelines,” he says in a statement.
While the move would be welcomed by many, some believe there are too many unanswered questions.
“We need to provide parents with sufficient answers, they have a whole lot of questions, as they should. Until such guidelines are in place we will not open,” said Lucy Hadida who runs a private kindergarten chain.
“they government does not own up to its responsibility in the move to reopen - it just expects of us to comply without any coordination,” she said.
Dr. Shulamit Bismanovsky who heads the Organization of Private Nurseries and Kindergartens added that there could be no social distancing among children aged 0 to three years of age, nor could there be distancing between care-givers and the children, "who will be responsible for any contagion?“ she asked as she claimed officials ignore the difference between the needs of toddlers and children aged four to six.
“Once again the education institutions for the youngest children are falling between the cracks," said Hagit Pe'er CEO of the Na'amat
Movement of Working Women & Volunteers that runs many nursery school facilities around the country.
Pe’er said she first heard about the government's decision watching the news, “ no one had notified us, no one has spoken to us about a rollout plan," adding that a proposed plan that was submitted to the relevant ministries by her organization and others, weeks ago received no response.