Israel on Thursday announced teachers who are unvaccinated or who fail to provide a negative corona test will be barred from entering schools and will not be paid a salary.
Israel’s Health Ministry instructed school principals that beginning on October 3, they would be required to block entry to any teachers without a Green Pass proving they have either recovered from COVID-19 or have received vaccination, or a recent negative test result.
Those teachers will not be allowed to teach remotely, the ministry added, and neither would they receive any payment during their absence.
Ran Erez, chairman of the Secondary School Teachers Association, said that while he supports the idea of unvaccinated teachers being banned from entering schools, he opposes denying them wages.
“There are quite a few jobs that can be given to a teacher from home, such as [distanced] individual hours for students in quarantine or Zoom lessons. They should not be punished immediately, but given another alternative,” he told Kan news, according to a translation of his remarks by the Times of Israel.
According to Haaretz, Erez has petitioned the High Court of Justice to apply the same rule to unvaccinated schoolchildren over the age of 12, who are eligible to receive three Pfizer vaccinations.
“Teachers who refuse to be vaccinated or tested cannot work in education,” Menashe Levy, chair of the High School Principals Association, said, but stressed that the number of teachers who fell in that category was very low.
Israel also began conditioning younger school children’s attendance at school upon receipt of a negative test. Children under 12, who are not eligible to be vaccinated, were provided a home test and parents were instructed to sign a document confirming a negative result.
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