There is a scholarship budget for parent payments — and the school is obliged to tell you it exists

The entitlement few people know about

In our article on the maximum amounts for 5787 we noted that a pupil may not be barred from an activity because of non-payment due to financial difficulty. This article is about what exists in addition to that rule: a real scholarship budget, which the Ministry of Education allocates to schools for exactly this purpose.

The instrument governing it is Permanent Instruction 0406, "Granting scholarships to pupils whose parents struggle to pay for learning materials and educational and social activities," published on September 1, 2023 and in force from that day. It cancels every earlier instruction on the subject.

The amounts

In primary school: ₪100–750 per pupil.
In secondary school: ₪100–1,200 per pupil.

Source: Permanent Instructions circular 0406, Ministry of Education, 1.9.2023, in force · verified September 2026.

The instruction notes that this range was widened relative to the previous instruction (no. 222, from 5779) "in order to give institutions maximum flexibility."

Who it is for

Pupils in state and state-religious schools, and pupils of the Independent Education and Ma'ayan HaChinuch HaTorani networks that teach the core curriculum — in primary schools, middle schools and high schools, across the Jewish, Arab, Druze and Bedouin sectors.

The budget is allocated to the school according to socio-economic criteria: by age level and by the school's decile on the nurture index, proportionally to the number of pupils.

Two thresholds worth knowing

A school without Afik approval cannot distribute scholarships. The instruction states: "a threshold condition for allocating a scholarship budget to a school is receiving approval in the Afik system for collecting parent payments and actually collecting them." The scholarship may not exceed the parent payments approved on Afik for that year.
A school that collects less than ₪100 a year may not award scholarships at all.

The instruction adds: no cash payments to parents. Cheques only in exceptional cases.

How the decision is made

The decision rests with a school scholarship committee. The instruction explains the logic candidly: "since it is not possible to help all the pupils who struggle to pay... a scholarship committee is appointed whose purpose is to identify those in greatest need and to help them, even if only partially."

The scoring has two parts:

Monthly income per capita — 85% of the weight. The instruction gives a sample bracket table in which an income per capita of up to ₪1,299 receives the highest score, and ₪2,781 and above the lowest.
Individual scoring — 15%. The committee may add up to 15 points at its discretion for facts that income per capita does not capture — the instruction gives as examples "exceptional medical expenses for the pupil or their family members, complex family circumstances and the like." The committee must set out its reasons.

This changes what is worth writing on the form. If the household carries an exceptional expense that does not show on a payslip — write it down. It has a place in the score.

The deadlines — set by the school, not by Jerusalem

The instruction requires the committee to set dates for submitting applications and dates for hearing objections to its decisions, and to publish them to parents. In other words: there is no single national date. The date that matters to you is the one your school published, and it usually falls in the first weeks of the year.

The 5787 parent-payments circular adds that schools in the GPN programme allocate scholarships per the procedure in the GPN guide; institutions outside GPN receive the budget through an external contractor.

The committee's minutes are confidential and are kept at the school. A parent's direct approach to the Ministry of Education requesting a scholarship is routed back to the school principal, who refers it to the committee — so there is no point in trying to bypass the route.

The duty to publicize — and it is the one to lean on

This is the most important point for parents. Two sources say it explicitly:

Instruction 0406: "The school management must ensure that all pupils in need of assistance are aware of the existence of the scholarship budget. Publication shall be made together with the parent-payments request letter and on the notice boards in the school offices."
Notice 0379 (parent payments 5787): "Principals are asked to act on allocating the scholarship budget in accordance with these guidelines and to inform pupils and their parents about it."

If you received no information at all about the scholarship budget alongside the payment demand — that is not your mistake. You may ask the school office for the details and the submission date.

What to do tomorrow

Ask the school office for the application form for parent-payment assistance and the submission deadline.
Fill in the sections on exceptional circumstances too — that is where the 15 points live.
If you are refused — the committee has a set date for hearing objections. Ask for it.

The form is also published on the Ministry of Education's site, in Hebrew and in Arabic.