There Is No Shortage of Teachers

Rabbi Shai Piron argues that there is no general shortage of teachers in Israel, but rather an unbalanced distribution. He cites the TALIS study and the Central Bureau of Statistics on shortages, yet presents data showing growth in teaching positions. He calls for an orderly policy to manage the teacher workforce according to need, and for improving working conditions and salaries.

Rabbi Shai Piron, president of the Penima movement and former Minister of Education, argues in an opinion column that the real problem in the education system is not a general shortage of teachers, but their unbalanced distribution. He describes three meetings: with the CEO of the alumni association of the Shomer farms, with Yossi, a 75-year-old volunteer teaching physics in kindergartens in Haifa, and with an artist who shared a painful learning experience. Piron cites the TALIS study published at the end of 2025, according to which the teacher shortage in Israel is twice as severe as the average in other countries and five times worse than in Finland, and the CBS report (2025) indicating a decline in teaching students. However, he presents contradictory data: the number of teaching positions grew by about 31% in the last decade, the student-teacher ratio dropped from 13 to 11.4 between 2015 and 2024, and the share of teaching staff among all employees rose from 5.5% to 6.5%. He calls for an orderly policy that manages the teacher workforce according to need, and allows local authorities to hire teachers with salaries adjusted to the cost of living. He criticizes the seniority pay scale, the poor working conditions of teachers, and the behavior of some parents toward teachers.