Teachers plan partial strike in schools, colleges across Israel

The teachers' unions are to cancel studies for first and second graders as well as eleventh and twelfth graders on Wednesday to protest the finance ministry's lag in renewing teachers' wage agreements.

Schools in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip will hold classes as scheduled.

The planned strike would mark the second teachers' strike in less than two weeks. Last Wednesday, teachers canceled studies in schools nationwide for two hours.

In Eilat, kindergartens and elementary schools will open their doors only at 9 A.M., to protest three incidents of assault by teachers on students in past days.

Students to strike at colleges in protest of Shochat Committee Meanwhile, the National Students' Union announced that it would hold a strike at 30 colleges Wednesday to protest the Shochat Committee's reforms to higher education.

The students said they intend to stand at major junctions and ask drivers for NIS 1 to fund higher education, to better illustrate the effects of the budget deficit.

Chairman of the National Students Union, Itai Barda, said that the strike is also to protest the increase in tuition fees that the committee is expected to propose. According to Barda, Education Minister Yuli Tamir said lately that tuition fees are too low and should be increased in order to receive a larger budget from the finance ministry.

"Most of the colleges are situated in the periphery, in areas that the socio-economic level is not high. The increase in tuition and the budget cuts together will be a deadly hit, which will widen the social gap even further," Barda said.

The Shochat Committee was appointed on November 8 by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Education Minister Yuli Tamir and Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson.

The committee, which is to submit its initial recommendations by late April 2007, comprises Tamir, Finance Ministry officials, representatives of the Council for Higher Education and senior professors, but it does not include student representation.