Prof. Calderon-Margalit: A loss of about two months of a school year is a loss of 1% of the GDP

There is no doubt that returning first- and second-graders to school is much more important. It is not only that the importance to the economy of first and second grade students is greater, because it is more difficult to keep them at home, even with a big brother. It is also the tremendous damage done to first graders in literacy and basic arithmetic. The Minister for Social Equality, Meirav Cohen, asked the cabinet why not switch, that grades 1-2 would be in full capsules and grades 3-4 would study alternately. Education Minister Yoav Galant's unconvincing answer was that there was a problem converting teachers.
This is not only about the future of the children but also about the future of the country.

Prof. Ronit Calderon-Margalit, from the Department of Public Health at the Hebrew University, said yesterday in the Knesset's Corona Committee that a loss of about two months of a school year is a loss of about 1% of the state's GDP, and as the system shuts down, the damage will increase. Says the decline in future earning level.The damage of course will not be shared equally.As Corona's unemployment, the school shutdown will also mainly hurt the weaker sections and ensure that many of their children will remain in those sections.
Calderon's words only paint an even more ridiculous light on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's explanation at the opening of the cabinet meeting yesterday that it is not possible to move to capsules in grades 1-2, because it will cost NIS 6 billion a year. First, the real cost of capsules is NIS 2-1.5 billion. Scary to think he made a decision without being aware of it. In other words, this is an amount equal to a quarter to a third of the unnecessary grant to every citizen that Netanyahu distributed last summer, which cost NIS 6.5 billion. This seems to be exactly the opportunity to cry over a spilled grant.