Health Ministry Director General Prof. Nachman Ash on Wednesday signed a directive that would allow vaccinating students against coronavirus during school hours.
The order stipulates that schools will allocate an area within the institution's premises designated for inoculations, collect permission slips from students' parents, and hand them to medical teams who will, in turn, set up an appointment to administer the shot.
The motion encountered stark opposition from Education Minister YIfat Shasha-Biton who later conceded after learning that the matter was not under her authority but that of Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz. She insisted vaccinations should take place before or after school hours.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on Wednesday gave a legal rubber stamp to an outline restricting in-school learning for classes with insufficient vaccination rates.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Monday proposed a plan suggesting that grade 8-12 classes in coronavirus hotspots in which less than 70% of students have either been vaccinated against COVID-19, recovered from the disease or have tested positive for coronavirus antibodies will learn remotely.
However, Education Ministry Director General Yigal Slovik said that the outline instead would apply to the whole grade and not individual classes, following an agreement between Shasha-Biton and Horowitz.
The coronavirus cabinet is expected to convene at the start of next week to make decisions on the opening of the school year.
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A health worker administers COVID-19 vaccine to a teenager at a pop-up vaccination station in Haifa
(Photo: Ido Erez)
School Administrators Association Chairman Menashe Levi protested the move, claiming it would lead to chaos, widen gaps between students and cause peer pressure that would end up harming youths emotionally.
"You can't send certain classes in a given grade to study through Zoom while other classes study at school. There are students who are unable to learn through Zoom and teachers who cannot teach this way," Levi said. This move will further widen the gaps between students who own a computer and those who don't."