While Education Minister (Labor) Prof. Yuli Tamir continues to promote improved education plans for Reform Movement schools and the Arab sector schools, talmedei torah are still struggle for necessary funds to continue operating under the stranglehold of the left-wing secularist minister.

The ministry is now moving ahead with a multi-year plan to improve Arab sector schooling during the coming years, including Arabic-language matriculation exams and the construction of new schools – a plan carrying a multi-billion shekel price tag.

Members of the Arab Monitoring Committee working with the ministry are calling for the construction of over 9,200 classrooms by 2012 at an estimated cost of NIS 3.6 billion.

In the meantime, UTJ MK Yaakov Litzman continues to lament the difficult situation in frum schools around the country, accusing Tamir and her staff of intentionally targeting religious education institutions as she promotes her liberal non-Orthodox agenda.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)