Government fails to decide on Shochat Report
Prime minister delays talks on acedmia's financial fate as dozens of students protest against budget cuts, exclusion from government discussions, saying finance minister's threat to hike tuition will not go unfought
Government fails to decide. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced Sunday that he is not planning to invite Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On and Education Minister Yuli Tamir to continue discussions on the Shochat Commission Report.
The Shochat Commission was established in November 2006 as a public committee meant to examine the state of higher education in Israel. The commission headed by former Finance Minister Avraham Shochat did not include the students in its discussions, which led to struggle that resulted in the government’s obligation not to raise the tuition.
Olmert spoke at the government meeting about three elements that must be emphasized – higher education accessibility, addressing colleges and especially marginal ones, as well as preventing the brain drain phenomenon.
Education Minister Yuli Tamir said during the meeting: “We must stand behind our commitment and start a dialogue with the students. We mustn’t begin a process of raising tuition unilaterally. We cannot hold higher education hostage.”
Tamir added that “we are in the midst of a higher education crisis. There’s great concern about not being able to commence the next academic year. Some universities cannot pay salaries to lecturers starting next month. It seems like some are looking for the system to collapse and be quickly reconstructed. This cannot happen.”
According to Shochat, “There’s no reason not to invest in higher education..one of Israel’s strategic branches. We need a budget of at least NIS 500,000 (about $147,798) in order to open the next academic year, not including lecturers’ wages.”
Dozens of students rallied Sunday in front of the Finance Ministry and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Office in protest against the failure to implement the Winograd Commission resolutions stipulating a 60% reduction in the academic tuition until 2009. The rally took place at the same time as the government was convening on the matter.
'No education, no state'
Gil Goldenberg, chairman of the student Union at Tel Aviv University also attended the government’s Sunday meeting. Dozens of students from Israel’s five biggest universities called out “Olmert resign, education is worth more,” and “Jerusalem is on fire,” while carrying signs reading: “No education, no state.”Chairman of Ariel University Center of Samaria’s Student Union Yochai Davidowitz said that “the main problem is that there is a clear agreement signed with the students that any discussion on tuition will be pre-approved by us prior to a cabinet discussion.”
Shlomo Levy, chairman of the Hebrew University’s Students’ Union, said that the students’ struggle must be reinforced: “We will not work or study as long as education is being neglected in the State of Israel. As far as we are concerned it is unthinkable. The finance minister wants to raise the tuition and the students will fight against him.”
The Finance Ministry opposes the compromise proposal submitted by Education Minister Yuli Tamir at the government meeting, which also dealt with the Shochat Report for higher education reform. According to the proposal, the university tuition will total NIS 8,611 (about $2,545) to remain unchanged for three years. During that period, a negotiating team will be founded together with the students to determine the tuition amount.
Students rally (Photo: Dudi Vaaknin)
According to Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On, “The Education Minister’s proposal lacks the important, vital clauses the Shochat Report stipulates in order to save the academia.” Another finance office official said: “We don’t know whether this is Mrs. Yuli or Prof. Tamir because first she signs the report and next she submits a proposal that is contradictory to the Shochat Report.”
According to finance office officials, the Shochat Report is not meant to handle the administrative problems in the higher education system, but only the question of merit so as to reduce brain drain. According to them, the compromise proposal removes a few vital matters from the daily agenda, such as varied compensation for lecturers, which is why they refuse to accept it.
Aside from freezing the tuition, Tamir also proposes rewarding public college lecturers by 15% of their value in order to encourage merit in teaching. This paragraph does not appear in the original Shochat Report. The education minister also proposes adopting the budgetary resource arrangement recommended by the Shochat Commission for the next five years.
Ram Belinkov, head of the finance ministry's budget division, said that one of the biggest problems in the original Shochat Report was the issue of merit, therefore proposing “differential wages so that lecturers can be rewarded based on merit. The minister (Tamir) wrote in her proposal that the issue is currently on hold until further discussion with the lecturers.”
Belinkov was upset that the proposal was submitted to the government’s secretariat and wasn’t handed over for review by the finance office. According to him, “A significant part of the Shochat Report will be omitted or postponed from the daily agenda, not just the tuition matter.”
Shmulik Grossman contributed to this report
