The new school year began on schedule yesterday after an 11th hour agreement between the teachers union and Education Minister Yitzhak Navon averted a threatened strike.
But as one-and-a-quarter million children returned to their classrooms, controversy erupted between Navon and Finance Minister Yitzhak Modai who complained that the agreement failed to comply with the government’s goal of a balanced education budget. “It does not seem to me that the agreement assures a stable school year,” Modai said.
The teachers agreed last Friday to take a 1.5 percent cut in salary. In exchange, the Education Ministry will reinstate 700 of the 1,800 non-tenured teachers who were dismissed in July. A Ministry spokesman said yesterday that it would not engage in an argument with the Finance Minister.
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