Parents of children with special needs have been protesting this week for they feel the Ministry of Education is not providing the special classrooms for the children, who require smaller groups, a greater teacher-to-pupil ratio and other specialized educational requirements to permit them to advance at a slower pace in line with their learning disabilities.

According to Kikar Shabbat, reporting it spoke with parents of some of these students, Deputy Minister of Education (Yahadut HaTorah) R’ Menachem Eliezer Moses only managed to open one such classroom in Israel, coincidentally in Haifa, home to his Seret-Vishnitz community. Parents accuse Moses on “only worrying about himself and his community” while the other children in Israel are being left out in the cold.

It must be pointed out that one of the parents explains the classroom has absolutely nothing to do with Moses’ connection with Seret-Vishnitz, but because enough parents with special ed children turned to the Ministry of Education and the latter realized in that area, the need is great.

Aides to the deputy minister released a statement to the press explaining they are not aware of any special preferences being given to Seret-Vishnitz or any other community for that matter. They acknowledge the system lacks “thousands of educational hours for the special children,” adding a solution has not yet been found.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)