End of Year Visit Characterized by Pedagogic Innovation

Programs for developing personal and meaningful dialogues and a mind-body development center were just some of the unusual programs and projects presented today to the directors of the Residential Settlement Education Administration during a visit to the Ohr Torah Stone schools located in Gush Etzion and Efrat 

Arutz Sheva | June 12, 2022

As the academic school year draws to a close, Ilana Nulman, Director of the Ministry of Education’s Residential Settlement, Boarding School, and Youth Aliyah Administration, paid a visit to the Gush Etzion Regional Council and Efrat Local Council.
The visit was centered on meetings with the Ohr Torah Stone’s educational staff and students of the network’s four local schools. Participants were impressed with fruits of the OTS schools’ activities over the past school year, and their continued trend of pedagogic innovation and of developing extensive and profound emotional discourse.
Among the unusual programs and projects that left a mark on the Administration’s directors during their visit were a theater performance by students of OTS’s Ulpanat Oriya ; programs to develop personal and meaningful discourse at OTS’s Neveh Channah ; a new mind-body development center at OTS’s Derech Avot high school for boys; and a unique program in OTS’s Neve Shmuel yeshiva high school, designed to encourage proactive involvement from students.
“I found high-quality, innovative, groundbreaking educational leadership here,” said Ilana Nulman, Director of the Ministry of Education’s Residential Settlement, Boarding School, and Youth Aliyah Administration at the at the end of the visit. “The Gush Etzion and Efrat councils invest jointly in education based on an understanding of the future. Together with the school leadership and the Ohr Torah Stone network, they head an optimal value-educational ecosystem that combines unique study and enrichment programs, and provides educators and students with a sphere for choice and a deep sense of belonging that intelligently and sensitively connects the past, present, and future.”
“Following another successful year of fruitful cooperation with the Residential Settlement, Boarding School, and Youth Aliyah Administration, we were pleased to have the opportunity to present the fruits of our common efforts to the Administration members,” said Yinon Ahiman, Director General of Ohr Torah Stone. “In the face of the challenges of the Covid pandemic and its educational consequences, which continued to impact on the current school year, we acted with the understanding that it is more important than ever to continue to promote pedagogical innovation along with emotional responses to students. The meeting with the teachers and the students in the field has demonstrated its paramount importance regarding actual outcomes, and we thank the Administration for their support in putting things into practice.”
Yossi Krautheimer, Director of Education at the Efrat local council: “The visit allowed us to show the Administration’s director and other senior officials our excellent council schools and fruitful collaborations with the education networks. Publications of this or that success and financial investment tables look good on paper, but there is no substitute for a meeting with the students, school principals, and educational staff for an impression of the school climate resulting from pedagogical investment and innovation. There is nothing more satisfying than hearing professional teachers and educators who are satisfied with their workplace and the tools given to them to succeed. We are pleased by the visit, grateful for the cooperation, and proud of our education system, which has received warm praise and serves as a model for others.”
Head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, Shlomo Ne’eman: “The innovative and creative forces of the younger generation in Gush Etzion are our hope. The maturity and seriousness with which the students of Or Torah Stone study are commendable. I am proud of them and wish them and the educational staff a successful end to the current school year, while looking forward to future years, which will be wise, profound, and innovative; and looking back at the glorious heritage of Gush Etzion, which deepens our roots here. ”
Read this article (in Hebrew) on the Arutz 7 website