Israel Teachers Union chief Yaffa Ben David said Tuesday that she is negotiating with the Finance Ministry regarding shortening the school week, among other things, following Hebrew media reports that the ministry would be overhauling the elementary education system amid a reported widespread shortage of teachers.
Ben David said, however, that she was also calling for teachers to get more time off.
“I agree to shortening the week to five days, but I have conditions: teachers will work four days a week and have one day at home for errands and professional development,” Ben David said, speaking at the annual conference of the Association of Local Government Education Department Directors, held in Eilat.
Her comments followed a Ynet news report earlier Tuesday that said the Finance Ministry was planning to shorten the school week from six days to five days, and also shorten summer break, so that the school year will begin as early as August 15 instead of September 1.
“Instructional hours in elementary schools need to be reduced to 23 hours, like in middle schools. That is what I will demand. We will fight to reduce teaching hours. In Israel, we study more than in all OECD countries,” she said.
Israel is currently one of the only countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development where students study six days a week instead of five. The Finance Ministry is reportedly considering eliminating classes on Fridays, for a Friday-Saturday weekend, in line with most of the country.
While she expressed interest in shortening the work week, Ben David flatly rejected shortening the summer vacation period.
“Shortening the summer vacation will not happen, period,” she stated, but declined to provide further details, adding that she “conducts negotiations with the Finance Ministry, not the media.”
According to the report, a pilot program is set to be implemented in the coming weeks that would see no classes on Fridays in elementary schools across 30 municipalities in central Israel, including Ra’anana, but the Education Ministry denied that it was happening.
Some schools already have a five-day week.
The finance ministry’s proposals to overhaul the education system are reportedly a bid to reduce costs and raise teachers’ salaries. The union leader said that she is discussing salary raises for teachers with the ministry, adding that it will “definitely happen,” but declined to provide details.
Teachers went on strike across the country last year over the Finance Ministry’s proposed cuts to teachers’ salaries, already among the lowest of OECD countries, to help finance the war in Gaza. The Israel Teachers’ Union reached an agreement with the Finance Ministry after a Tel Aviv Labor Court ordered teachers to return to work in May 2025.
Low salaries and large class sizes have led to teacher shortages across the country. Contrary to reports that the education system is lacking about 300 teachers, Ben David said that the actual number is far closer to 4,000, and accused the education ministry of “hiding” this reality.
Israel also has the second-most crowded classrooms among developed countries, despite spending more of its GDP on primary, secondary, and post-secondary education than any other OECD country, according to an OECD report in September.
