Proposed pact with teachers would cost NIS 5.5 billion

The cost of the agreement taking shape between the Finance Ministry and Israel's high-school teachers will be about NIS 5.5 billion over five years. Of that, NIS 1.5 billion would be budgeted for the year 2008, the parties agreed after marathon talks between the treasury and the union.

The teachers closed down the country's high schools for 55 days, yet after all they will not be getting the 26 percent special pay raise that the junior-high and elementary-school teachers will get. That is mainly because unlike their colleagues, this group - which is represented by a separate union - refused to teach longer hours. They will however apparently be receiving a smaller raise to compensate for salary erosion and other elements, but the precise figure had not been nailed down as of press time last night.

But the treasury allocated money to raise salaries of high school teachers, and that money won't be going to waste. It will apparently be used to reduce the number of pupils per class, from 40 to 30, under the collective bargaining agreement taking shape last night.

The treasury for its part is apparently willing to increase the NIS 5 billion it had budgeted for education reform by 10 percent, to NIS 5.5 billion, over five years. That money is earmarked for raises, building new classrooms (reducing the number of high-school students in each class), disabled students, retirement schemes and other purposes.

The bottom line is that the agreement taking shape with Association of Secondary School Teachers will include no reform, in terms of the hours they teach. That will remain 24 a week. From the perspective of work load, the change relates only to junior high and elementary school teachers in the Israel Teachers Union. They will get a 26 percent pay raise in exchange for teaching more hours per week.

The striking high-school teachers will be entitled to the same pay hikes as all other civil servants, based on the collective agreement signed with the Finance Ministry by Histadrut labor federation chief Ofer Eini. They will also be entitled to a one-time payment to compensate for erosion. As of print time the percentages relating to the secondary school teachers had not been finalized, but the scope is about 10 percent.

The sea change in the teachers' attitude happened on Monday, when Ran Erez, chairman of the Secondary School Teachers Association, understood that under no circumstances would the teachers receive the kind of raise they wanted without teaching more. He reportedly removed Motti Morel, his media adviser, from the negotiating table and said that the secondary school teachers would waive a raise, in exchange for which they demanded that the entire sum earmarked for their pay raise - NIS 1.5 billion - would be devoted to reducing the number of children per class from 40 to 30, at most, over five years.