Friday marks start of summer vacation for high schoolers

700,000 students in grades 7-12 to be joined by 1.5 million in younger grades by month’s end

By ToI Staff 19 June 2015, 9:36 am

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Students in Kiryat Sharet high school in Holon take their matriculation exams in mathematics, May 21, 2013. (Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)

Friday was the last day of the school year for some 700,000 middle and high school students nationwide, and the start of summer vacation.

The seventh- to twelfth-graders will be joined at the end of the month by some 1.5 million elementary school students and kindergarteners.

The coming of summer is undoubtedly a relief for the students, but even more so for the education system, which has seen growing anger over the increasing number of students in each class, among other ongoing controversies linked to the education budget.

Even as high schools prepare to close, elementary schools in at least four cities were shuttered by parents on Friday in an organized protest over an expected expansion of class sizes for next year, according to Israel Radio. The cities included Ness Ziona, Daliat al-Carmel, Shaar Hanegev and some schools in Ramat Gan.

Education Ministry director general Michal Cohen met Thursday with a parents’ group, but the meeting ended without agreement.