2020 was a tough year for Israeli students: for many months and three strict lockdowns, they had to take lessons from home. Often more bad than right, as education experts report. This year, however, the government is trying to keep the schools open and has been quite successful so far.
Contributing to this is that the Covid-19 situation in this country has improved dramatically in a short time. While the number of new infections a day reached a high of over 11,000 in September, it recently fell to a few hundred. The positive trend is also having an impact on schools. The number of school children infected with Corona has halved within just two weeks.
The fourth wave of Covid, which began in mid-June, came from schools. Several children and adolescents had apparently previously been infected with the Delta variant abroad. At the time, most minors were still unvaccinated, so the variant could spread quickly. Sunday Israel released Biontech vaccine to children five and older.
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In the meantime, however, more than half of all twelve to 15-year-olds have received at least one injection for the virus. Among the 16 to 19 year olds, three out of four have already been vaccinated twice, a third of all adolescents in this age group have even picked up the so-called booster, the third dose. In the near future, even smaller children will probably have to roll up their sleeves: A few days ago, a panel of experts set up by the government recommended vaccination for children from the age of five.
“Quarantine is killing the children”
Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who took office in mid-June, has repeatedly promised to avoid another lockdown if at all possible. “Without school, the children deteriorate in all parameters,” he said in September. “We have to enable continuous learning, otherwise we will raise a generation of zombies.”
Experts also issued drastic warnings: Distance learning threatens to widen the gap between weak and strong students. In Israel it is already lower than in other OECD countries.
To avoid this, the government has developed a complex system that aims to quarantine as few students as possible. At the beginning of the new school year in early September, Covid self-tests were sent to parents of unvaccinated students. All cities were divided into green, yellow, orange and red according to the infection rate to allow differentiation.
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In red and orange places, for example, the following applies from the 9th grade: If less than 70 percent of the students have been vaccinated or have presented a serological test that detects coronavirus antibodies in the blood, the lessons must be held outdoors or with a zoom.
The government also started a program called the “Green Class”. Students who have had contact with corona infected people and live in an area with a low infection rate no longer necessarily have to be in home quarantine. Instead, they can continue to go to school, provided they have a negative Covid test result every morning for the following week.
Initially, the “Green Class” was introduced as a pilot program in 247 schools, and a few weeks ago the government extended it to all schools in so-called green and yellow cities. Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Bitton criticized the decision should have been made earlier: “The quarantine is emotionally draining the children.”
The long lockdowns have already left their mark. Israeli news site Yedioth Ahronoth recently reported that teachers across the country are complaining of an unprecedented increase in violence, antisocial behavior and drug use among their students, apparently as a result of months of isolation.
Approval for Biontech vaccine for children from five years
The corona vaccine from Biontech / Pfizer can now also be given to children between the ages of five and eleven in Israel. The Ministry of Health decided on Sunday after an advisory committee had already voted in favor of it. So far, the vaccination approval was only valid for children from the age of twelve and adults. The additionally required doses are to be delivered to Israel in the coming days and enable the vaccination campaign for smaller children to start immediately, as the newspaper “Haaretz” reported.
The advisors consulted by the Ministry of Health came to virtually unanimous conclusion that “the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh its risks,” it said. Only 2 of the 75 experts therefore voted against the release of the preparation for children from the age of five. The committee also recommended by a large majority that children who have already suffered a corona infection should also be vaccinated.
(with dpa)
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