Around 33,000 students in 47 schools returned yesterday. The strike was called when the Israeli government announced last month that it was cutting funding to all Christian schools and at the same time cutting the amount schools were allowed to charge students.
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Arab Christians in Palestine have threatened to close their churches in retaliation for Israel’s cutting of the budget allocated to community faith schools, which forced these schools to shut down as a result of their inability to continue providing their educational services.
The Christian schools did not open at the start of the school year on September 1, alleging that they receive only one-third as much government funding as comparable Jewish schools.
In signing the agreement, the Secretariat also agreed that Christian high-schools would not be able to strike until July 2013 and elementary schools would not be able to strike until December 2016.
“We regard the agreement as a provisional achievement for our schools, given that we received not only one-time financial support but also an agreement to establish a committee to change our legal status, which will enable a long-term solution”, the Secretariat of Christian Schools in Israel said in a statement.
An official commission with equal representatives from the ministry and the secretariat will present recommendations to the ministry by the end of March regarding the legal status of the Christian schools in Israel; the ministry’s final determination will have an impact on the funding for the schools.
The calling says it must suggested to permit the Christian schools to wind up on the State structure, meaning they are can apply for more State raising a fund.
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Another joint commission will be charged with discussing matters of importance to both parties.
