CBNNews.com - HOLON, Israel - Opposition leader and Likud party chairman Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu said he's determined to turn Israel's education system back in the direction it should go, teaching students about Israel's history.

Israeli schools should be among the world's finest, Netanyahu told participants of a conference in Holon, a city just outside Tel Aviv.

Teachers should be paid more and receive the respect their profession deserves, he said, citing examples of the way other countries prepare their teachers.

In a veiled reference to Education Minister Yuli Tamir, Netanyahu said kids should study about Ben Gurion and other Zionist leaders rather than about the Palestinian Nakba.

Nakba, which means catastrophe, is the Palestinian Authority's alternative to Israel's Independence Day (Yom Ha'atz'ma'ut), which teaches the Arab population to shun the birth of the modern State of Israel.

Tamir said Israeli Arab textbooks should include studies about the Nakba.

Meanwhile, Adi Eldar, chairman of the Union of Local Authorities in Israel (ULAI) said Tamir informed him of an $80 million cut to municipalities' education budgets.

According to Eldar, some 4,500 school janitors, secretaries and administrators will lose their jobs.

"The crumbling government is destroying the country's educational system," Eldar said.

Source: YNet news