"A child is not born at age 3": The crisis that will leave thousands of babies at home on September 1st

Just before September 1st, at the WIZO Kiryat Shalom daycare in Tel Aviv, the excitement is already felt: classrooms are being cleaned, walls are being painted, equipment is being arranged, and the staff is preparing to receive the children. However, behind the festive preparations hides a much more complex reality: a severe shortage of manpower has led to the fact that the baby class at the daycare will not open at all on September 1st, alongside eight other daycares across the country that closed this year.

In Israel today, there are about 560,000 children from birth to age three, and about 180,000 babies are born every year. Investing in quality education and care from infancy is expected to affect a broad and significant population of children and parents from all sectors and backgrounds in Israeli society.

Nevertheless, the early childhood education sector in Israel is in a deep and ongoing national crisis. The crisis is characterized by policy failures, a severe shortage of manpower, a split of powers and responsibilities between different government ministries, and a continuous erosion of the status of care and education professions. This is not a localized or temporary crisis, but a pathological situation that testifies to the lack of a structured national policy for ages birth to three, and to a lack of understanding that a holistic view of one government ministry is required — one that will see infancy from end to end.

Today, about 40% of children in these ages are not integrated into educational frameworks at all. Supervised daycares are closing, classes are not opening regularly due to the shortage of caregivers-educators, and many parents are forced to choose between an impossible financial expense and giving up a quality educational framework for their children — a situation that leads to an inability to go to work and usually harms the mother, who is forced to stay at home for a long period and take care of the toddler.

Limor Ganor, director of the WIZO Kiryat Shalom daycare in Tel Aviv for ten years, reveals the difficult challenge: despite the high demand and long waiting lists, there are simply not enough caregivers. "I have a veteran, valued, and dedicated staff, and parents are waiting on waiting lists to get to us," she says. "But unfortunately, the shortage of staff caused me to close one class — the baby class will not open in September."

This is a class that was supposed to absorb babies, most of whom were born at the beginning of the year. Their parents registered for the daycare months in advance, went through the acceptance process, and were sure they had found a framework ahead of returning to work. Only at the beginning of August was Ganor forced to inform them that the class would not open on time. "There are mothers who really want the daycare and are willing to wait. Some say they will pull through for another month, get help from a grandmother or family, and because of the holiday period, they will somehow try to manage. There are parents whom we transferred to another WIZO daycare and were accepted, and there are those who are still looking and have no answer."

Behind the term "manpower shortage" hide numbers that illustrate how much every missing employee can affect the daycare's activity. According to Ganor, in a baby class, the standard is one caregiver for every six children; in a class of 18 babies, three caregivers are required, alongside an additional worker who allows for replacements and vacation days. In the older age groups, the ratio changes: for toddlers, it is one caregiver for every nine children, and in the preschool group, one caregiver for every 11 children. A full daycare can hold about 75 children, and to operate it regularly, according to her, about 12 to 13 employees are required, including caregivers, replacements, and a cook.

"Of course we would want more staff," she says. "But we have reached a situation where we are already saying: give us at least what exists. Once they talked about improving standards, and today we see that it is difficult even to find enough staff for the current standards."

"You get a message at night that an employee is not feeling well, and then you think: how do I open tomorrow morning?" Ganor says about the thoughts ahead of September 1st, which accompany her throughout the year as well. "Last year, most of the year I also worked as a caregiver in the classes. I had a caregiver who had to go for surgery and a long recovery, and in certain periods we worked six days and did not take vacation days."

According to Ganor, one of the main reasons for the recruitment crisis is the gap between the responsibility placed on the caregivers and the salary they receive. According to her, the starting salary is around the minimum wage, while in private daycares, candidates can sometimes receive 50 and even 60 shekels per hour. "If someone can receive a higher salary elsewhere, it affects. I think that if I could have told a candidate in advance that she starts at 50 shekels per hour, it would have given her the push to come. Later, when she is already here and feels the atmosphere and the meaning of the work, it may be that she will say: I am good here and I want to stay."

The approach promoted today, which focuses mainly on expanding supervision, is a kind of "plaster" and does not provide an answer to the deep causes of the crisis. The central failure lies in the low entry threshold for education-care professions in infancy, which does not befit the complexity of the role, the size of the responsibility involved in it, and the critical developmental needs of children at this age, as consistently emerges from current scientific research.

Alongside the salary issue, Ganor emphasizes that at WIZO there are benefits and accompanying conditions, including a training fund, vacation days, payment during periods when the daycare is closed, and opportunities for professional development. There are caregivers who have advanced over the years to management positions, and in recent years there are even academic programs for employees, and still, the difficulty in recruiting manpower remains very severe.

Ganor herself is finishing these days the first year of studies for a degree in early childhood education, as part of a joint program for WIZO and the Levinsky campus. She came to the field after a professional conversion from accounting. "I am already deep inside," she smiles. "I really love the work. With all the shortage and with the lack of sleep at night because of the teams, I am good here."

According to Ganor, sometimes young women aged 18 and over arrive who are looking for temporary work, but some of them discover very quickly that it is a profession that requires responsibility, training, and perseverance. "They arrive and think maybe that it is something light, and then realize that the work is not simple. You cannot be with the phone all day; you cannot tell the children 'wait, I have a call', you must be focused on them all the time." The employees are required to undergo various trainings, including first aid and safe conduct, and later also additional professional training. "There are those who reach this stage and say that it is already not suitable for them."

"In recent years, the intervention of parents has become very difficult for teams," she emphasizes. "At my daycare, I feel it less, and apparently that is also part of the reason why my veteran staff stays. But those who come from outside sometimes say: why do I need this? I can work in another place without hearing all the time why the child fell, why they didn't change him, or why he has red in his bottom."

Alongside the shortage of teams, the daycare is dealing on the eve of the opening of the year with another uncertainty: the question of subsidy and payment of parents. According to Ganor, ahead of the beginning of the year, parents already know that they have been accepted and the staff is in contact with them, but some of them still do not know what their subsidy level will be and how much they will be required to pay in practice. "At the moment, parents have no certainty how much they will pay at the beginning of the year. I had parents who in the past waited half a year for a level. A family with two children can find itself paying full price — 3,400 shekels per child — for months, and only then receive the subsidy. There are parents who cannot afford this, and sometimes they are forced to leave. This is crazy bureaucracy."

Precisely after a decade in the field, and alongside her academic studies, she says that she understood how complex and significant the work in daycares is: "When I study this today, I understand even more how much we have on our shoulders and how it is not as simple as people think." From her point of view, the solution to the crisis must start with public and governmental recognition of the profession. "There must be a large government intervention to recognize educators as a profession, as a specialty. This is not babysitting; not just changing a child's diaper all day. There is a lot of work here of education, promotion, and development."

Ganor still refuses to give up on optimism. "This is the basis of all education. It must change. I once told parents that my daughters are already grown, and then they asked me how old the eldest is. I said 23, and they answered: 'Then soon you will have grandchildren and who will watch over them?' At that moment I understood that it returns to all of us."

Colonel (res.) Keren Kaminsky, director of the Early Childhood Division at WIZO, continued: "We meet the crisis every day in the field. WIZO will operate this year 151 supervised symbol daycares, in which about 10,000 toddlers will receive service and about 3,000 staff members will work. This year we are forced to close eight daycares, mainly due to the shortage of manpower, alongside regulation and the economic model."

"There are places where there is demand from parents and also physical space for absorbing children, but we do not have enough staff to open classes," she explained the difficult problem. "The meaning is fewer places in supervised daycares and a real difficulty for families in need of a quality, stable, and accessible framework. Daycares are not just an economic business — they are a vital infrastructure that allows parents to work, gives stability to families, and affects their lives and the development of their children."

According to her, efforts are required mainly for preserving the teams. "Ahead of the opening of the year, our main efforts are directed to recruiting and preserving the teams. The directors, the caregivers-educators, the cooks, and the social workers do complex, demanding, and huge responsibility work, with dedication and professionalism. It is impossible to continue demanding from the teams to bear huge responsibility for education and care for children, without giving them professional status, salary, and training that befit the importance of their work. Without a real change in conditions, the shortage will continue to worsen and more classes and daycares will be closed. WIZO is working for this also in the field: we are leading an academization process and giving the teams scholarships for studies for a first degree in early childhood education. At the same time, in September we will open with Clalit Health Services a new daycare at the Meir Medical Center, as part of the continued development of responses adapted to the needs of the families."

Also Colonel (res.) Marcel Asulin, CEO of WIZO World, referred sharply to the situation ahead of the opening of the year: "A child is not born at age three, but the State of Israel continues to conduct itself as if the education system starts only then."

"The years from birth to three, which are the most critical for the child's development, still do not receive the national responsibility, planning, and resources that they require," added Asulin. "The result is a severe crisis that threatens the system that holds the toddlers, the families, and the entire economy. According to data from the Oranim Institute, in recent years more than 500 supervised daycares have closed in Israel — this is no longer a warning sign, but a reality that requires immediate action. This situation is also related to the way the field is managed: today early childhood is between four government ministries — education, labor, welfare, and finance, without one factor that is 'mom and dad', who looks at the picture as a whole and bears responsibility."

"Alongside the split of powers, there is also a lot of regulation and bureaucracy, which make it difficult for operators and prevent long-term planning. We are in dialogue with government ministries and with decision-makers ahead of the opening of the next year, and ahead of the elections we expect that everyone who presents a plan for education in Israel will also present a clear plan for early childhood. It is impossible to talk about the education system and start it at age three. It is necessary to understand that investment in early childhood is not an expense that needs to be cut, but an investment that returns itself: it can reduce gaps and prevent in the future social and economic costs in the fields of education, welfare, and health. Therefore, a fundamental change and root treatment are required here to put early childhood in the place worthy of it in the list of national priorities."