After staying at home almost two weeks: 2.4 million students returned to school and kindergarten

After staying in their homes for almost two weeks since the operation began in Gaza, today (Sunday) about 2.4 million students returned to school and kindergarten in the southern and central localities. In accordance with the directive of Education Minister Yoav Galant, the rehearsal began today and will be done gradually to allow each authority and school to prepare accordingly, until a full rehearsal tomorrow. The directive also applies to youth villages and boarding schools.
The principal of the Alon School of Science in Sderot, Vered Afenger, said upon returning to school that "we feel that not all the students have arrived, there are still some respites. Usually the children arrive on the first day with great excitement and after a few days we feel the children's emotional difficulties." Throughout the week, in collaboration with the Sderot Municipality and the Ministry of Education, the Southern District, there will be respite activities for children along with activities to strengthen resilience. "School counselors and the team of psychologists will in the coming days deal with locating children who need assistance due to the security situation."
The Ministry of Education has instructed the educational institutions to devote the first days to returning to school to provide an emotional and social response to children and youth, given the tense period of the operation in Gaza and the shooting from the Gaza Strip. The ministry also decided to hold additional dates for the matriculation exams in foreign languages, which were scheduled for tomorrow, as well as for the English matriculation exam, which was expected to take place on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Additional dates for these matriculation exams will be chosen by students from the Gaza Strip, the south and the south of the Shephelah, and the Ministry of Education will announce them soon.
The Home Front Command announced last weekend the removal of all security restrictions imposed throughout the country due to the security situation, after the ceasefire took effect on the night between Thursday and Friday. During the operation, the announcement of the cessation of studies in the southern localities was given on the first day of the fighting in Gaza. In the other localities from Herzliya and south, the Home Front Command ordered the cessation of studies two days later, on the third day of the operation, after several of the center's municipalities decided to tighten the guidelines independently.
In the Ramat Eshkol neighborhood in the city of Lod, which has been the focus of friction in recent weeks, school and kindergarten education did not open this morning. This is because the neighborhood committee decided to increase the security of the educational institutions in the neighborhood with private security for fear of further irregularities.
The municipality said this morning that "the neighborhood committee has decided to increase private security and it takes a day to get approval for the armed men who will arrive tomorrow. The conclusion was that unarmed security guards will arrive, along with many dozens of border fighters deployed at any moment in the neighborhood." "As part of the preparations throughout the city, including at the Eshkol level, security was increased at the routes leading to the city's educational institutions, and the hours of operation of all the security guards were extended and guard points were added in the city."