Shlomo Dovrat, a businessman and head of the commission that recommended sweeping reforms to the country's education system, told Ynet Thursday the country's teachers are "blowing a historic opportunity" to reform the country's education system by opposing the reforms he helped author.
"I understand (their) objection to the coercive nature of the recommendations, but must they set the current situation in stone? Are there really teachers who wouldn't welcome a 30 percent raise? The teachers must think of the long-term. In the current atmosphere the aggressiveness of the teachers will make it very hard to carry out the reforms," he said.
Dovrat also said the government is ready and willing to invest money to fix a system most people believe is broken.
Sad day
"It's a sad day," said Dovrat, referring to reports that 2500 teachers have been fired. "Firing teachers is tough for everyone. But responsibility for those dismissals lies with one party only - the teachers' union."
Asked whether, in light of the teachers' fight, he would have changed the commission he headed, Dovrat says including teachers' unions would have prevented the committee from functioning.
"We also left out the education and finance ministries," he said, referring to one of the main charges opponents have to the reforms.
Dovrat also said he believes the teachers will come around, and that the union will itself eventually become part of the reforms.
"Even they know there is no choice but our reforms," he said. "All their campaigns and fights over the years have brought no results. They are at the bottom of the salary scale and their standing is low.
"They must think of the children and of education."