Education minister: Wartime school guidelines likely extended as PM, lawmakers set to convene

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Education Minister Yoav Kisch and other ministers are set to discuss the next steps for the education system in the shadow of the war with Iran in a meeting tonight, Kisch says in a statement.

According to the statement, the meeting will include Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Education will be one of the topics on the agenda.

Schools in Israel are set to reopen on Thursday after the end of the Passover holiday.

Kisch says the current outline, which allows in-person learning only in areas designated by the Home Front Command as having a lower risk of attacks, will be extended at least until the end of the week, provided there is no change in the HFC guidelines. The decision was made after discussion with representatives of the local authorities and parents, among others.

The Home Front Command typically conducts assessments every two or three days.

Under the current guidelines, areas of the country are designated as yellow and orange. In the former, provided that a shelter can be reached within the time available to reach a protected space, educational activities can be held in person, and gatherings can include up to 50 people outdoors and 100 people indoors. In the latter, educational activities are prohibited, and gatherings can include up to 50 people, provided that shelter is available (workplaces with access to shelters can operate in both areas).

Currently, most of Israel is labeled as orange; yellow areas include the Gaza border communities, the Lower Galilee, Arava and West Bank.

A new assessment is scheduled for tonight.

According to the statement, the Education Ministry is also working on possible outlines to expand in-person learning, among others, considering a rotating system alternating between in-person and remote learning, with some 30 to 50 percent of the students attending classes in person at one time.