Summer School to Continue Until August

Education Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday that summer school classes should stay open until early August, as planned, according to The Times of Israel.

Calls for a shutdown were unjustified, Gallant said, as most coronavirus cases during the summer originated outside school premises.

He stressed the overriding need to keep schools open as much as possible so that parents will be able to go to work.

Meanwhile, immigrants to Israel were notified that they must present themselves in person at the Education Ministry to apply for recognition of academic degrees obtained abroad, regardless of the coronavirus.

The Ministry told the Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee on Wednesday that documents cannot be submitted by email. Information about the applications process is available on the website only in Hebrew, and application forms there are not operating, The Jerusalem Post reported.

“Israel needs more doctors and engineers, so the government should make it easier, not harder, for immigrants to get their degrees from abroad recognized,” the chairman of the committee, Likud MK David Bitan, said.

Tzipi Weinberg, the head of the Education Ministry’s office that recognizes academic degrees, told the committee that the process of immigrants getting their degrees from abroad recognized depends on their country. For instance, degrees from Russia and Ukraine take longer, because her staff has only two workers who speak Russian and Ukrainian.