Former Shas party minister Ariel Atias continues working to negotiate a deal on behalf of the party’s Mayan Chinuch education system, the Ministry of Education and the treasury.

The negotiations have been ongoing for months as Shas is trying to find a workable formula to receive approval from the ministry that will result in considerably more state funding for its financially ailing education network. If a deal is signed, the education network will become public and be under the jurisdiction of the Education Ministry’s supervisors. According to a report in The Marker, if a deal is reached, Shas will become a member of the ministry’s Chareidi-Sephardi Education, which will be established to cater to Mayan Chinuch.

This would be part of Education Minister Shai Peron’s reforms, which include his establishment of the Chareidi Education unit in the ministry. Schools under the wing of the ministry will receive total funding, the same funding enjoyed by state public schools and religious public schools.

Shas and the ministry have already signed a memo of understanding and thereby Shas removed the imminent threat of losing 525 million shekels of annual funding from the ministry. The Mayan Chinuch system has agreed to implement an austerity plan, which includes oversight from the ministry’s Sephardi Chareidi Education unit. That agreement compels Mayan Chinuch to dismiss 1,200 employees and to close 400 especially small classrooms and 22 small schools or lose all state funding.

Despite ongoing efforts, they have yet to sign the final agreement, with each side blaming the other for the delays.

The Marker also reports that Mrs. Esther Atias, the former minister’s wife, has been selected to oversee the ministry’s new Chareidi Education unit. She has many years of experience in this capacity and holds a master’s degree in education from Ben-Gurion University and held a senior post in the Mayan Chinuch system for 11 years.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)