Two days of vacation from school for Lag b'Omer has been over the top. It might have been the straw that breaks the camels back. As working parents got extremely upset at having to figure what to do with their bored kids, they turned their anger towards the Ministry of Education. Why are the kids given a senseless vacation day while parents have to work - what are the parents meant to do?
The problem is not really that kids have vacation at times when the parents do not. That happens a lot. The kids get about 3 months of vacation over the course of the year, and the parents generally are able to deal with it. Most of the vacation is during the summer months. Parents find camps for the kids, and parents take a few days or a week off of work to spend with their kids on a vacation. it might be a difficult, and camps might be expensive when you have to pay for a few kids, but it is something parents can usually deal with (though personally I think the summer vacation is way too long).
The problem is more with the random vacation days in the middle of the year. A day here, a day there, and the parents don't know what to do. Take a day off from work? We do not get that many vacation days as it is!
An interesting solution has been proposed by new blogger Yama VeKedma. The thrust of it is that the kids would not have school on Fridays in exchange for all those random vacation days and if necessary a short part of the summer. Most parents do not work on Fridays anyway, so the bulk of the people would not need to take vacation days or have a dilemma about what to do with the kids.
It turns out that the Minister of Education just announced that he is considering such a solution. New blogger Yama Vekedma hit the mark with his first post!
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