Chairman Naamat: "The dormitory subsidy program is not good"

Hagit Par, chairman of Naamat, was interviewed this morning (Monday) on the 'Seven-Nine' program on 103FM and referred to the plan to subsidize daycare centers for toddlers presented last night by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Education Minister Yoav Kish.

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Par explained her opinion on the matter: "The program is not good, really not, unfortunately. The credit points are great for parents, but parents will be left with credit points without daycare, we don't have the personnel. As long as there are no nannies, there are no daycare centers. There is no solution. I don't I heard no solution for recruiting personnel and preserving the existing personnel. I am talking to you about this morning, now at this hour, there are dormitories that are not opened. Because there is no personnel, we live from day to day," she claimed at the beginning of the conversation.

She continued and said on the same subject: "Every day the directors of the day care centers have to call and check who will come the next day if you do, and inform the parents at the last minute that the class is closing. This is really a daily occurrence. There are about 2,000 workers missing in all the supervised day care centers. In the last year we have closed a great many classes and day care centers, numbers Like almost 100 dormitories this year alone. We're not talking about September, how will we get to September? How will we get through these months?", she wondered.

As for the claim that there is relief for parents, Chairman Noamat replied: "There is relief that will start from January 2024, but parents will remain with this relief in the bank account and without a solution. So what did we do about it? There are no solutions, and again – they will be left without day care centers. About 2,000 caregivers are missing in all the organizations in the supervised settings, who make up 25 percent of the children who come from birth to 3. We didn't hear the solutions yesterday, there must be a salary increase."

To the question, what amount could have solved the problem, she answered: "If we are talking about a multi-year plan, we are talking about comparing the salaries of the educators to the salaries of the assistants in the kindergartens. They are going to work in the kindergartens with the new reform. We are talking about 2 billion for an annual plan. They took 1.3 billion for construction New dormitories, what will they build? We have to start with the basics to build a building. We take this amount, invest in manpower, training, and only then can we start building new dormitories. Even today within the framework of the existing dormitories, if we had manpower, we could provide services to about fifty thousand more toddlers today In the existing frameworks, we simply don't open classes because I don't have the manpower. We need to be called today and resolve this issue – first of all, a significant salary increase for female employees, so that we can preserve the employees who are already falling off their feet and there are no personnel in the dormitories."

In conclusion, she emphasized: "This is the most important age for the development of toddlers, and unfortunately the state forces us to function as a nursery school instead of giving the best education we know how to give. The government has to work with us, and that's the easiest. It's not some daycare center somewhere that we hear about violence every day , they have us, we are organized, we know how to do the job, we are not able with the manpower that exists – there is no possibility to give the best education that the children of Israel deserve. This is our future generation, the most important age, and we need to do it. The money is there , so let's use it properly."

Assisted in the preparation of the article: Shani Romano 103FM