Education minister says schools will open in fall

Education Minister Yoav Gallant says schools will open in September, under strict conditions to avoid the spread of the virus.

According to the Education Ministry plan, in-person classes, including at daycares and kindergartens and through high school, will be capped at 18 students. Most students will learn part of the time online.

“We want to implement ‘half classes,'” Gallant tells reporters. “We plan to preemptively open the school year this way. That means those who will give up, to a considerable extent, their [physical] presence at school will be the older students, and those who will come are the students whose presence in school is essential to the economy,” he continues, apparently referring to young children who can’t be left home alone while parents are at work.

He says all students will come into school at least once a week.

Schools were closed in mid-March, but almost all classes were okayed to return by the second week of May, in a move that some policy experts have blamed for the resurgence of the virus. The government eventually clamped down on high school classes at the end of the school year, but has taken few steps to close or limit schools since then, allowing summer school to continue for lower grades.