The number that shakes parents: more than 20,000 toddlers left without a framework

The Forum of Supervised Daycare Centers appealed on Sunday to the Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, with an urgent call for personal intervention in the severe crisis in early childhood education, after more than 20,000 toddlers were left without an educational framework at the start of the upcoming school year and are on waiting lists solely due to the acute shortage of manpower.

This is an increase of about 20% compared to last year, when more than 16,000 toddlers were waiting for a framework. The forum warns that this is an unprecedented figure, reflecting the deepening of the crisis in the sector and the growing difficulty in recruiting and retaining educators-caregivers. According to the forum members:

"Behind every toddler left without a framework stands an entire family forced to deal with uncertainty."

Thus, many parents will be forced to choose between expensive private frameworks that are not subsidized and giving up on going to work, a situation that directly harms working families, the labor market, and the economy.

In the forum, they note that the wages of educators-caregivers in supervised daycare centers do not reflect the great responsibility placed upon them and are even lower than the average wage in the economy. As a result, many leave the profession in favor of other jobs that allow them to earn a living with dignity, while the daycare centers struggle to recruit new employees and open additional classrooms.

The forum calls on the Ministry of Finance to implement without delay the decisions of the Finance Committee of the Knesset regarding updating the caregivers' wages, and argues that this is a vital move to stop the abandonment of manpower, to recruit new employees, and to increase the number of places in daycare centers.

Lior Gabay, chairman of the Forum of Supervised Daycare Centers, says:

"More than 20,000 toddlers are left this year without a framework not because of a shortage of buildings, but because of a shortage of caregivers. The state has already made a decision in the Finance and Education committees to improve their wages, and now is the time to implement it. Every day of delay exacerbates the crisis and harms thousands of families who are forced to choose between earning a living and caring for their children. We call on the Minister of Finance to intervene personally and ensure that the commitments are met before the start of the school year."

Hagit Pe'er, chairwoman of Na'amat, added:

"These data constitute a red warning sign for the State of Israel. When more than 20,000 toddlers are left without a framework, it is no longer just a crisis of the daycare centers, but a social and economic crisis that harms working families, children, and the entire economy. The state must stand by its commitments, implement the decisions of the Finance Committee immediately, and correct the ongoing distortion in the caregivers' wages."