AKEL calls for the resignation of the Education Minister

Statement by Christos Christofides, Head of the Education Affairs Bureau of AKEL and MP

15 September 2021, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

Today we tabled for debate in the Parliamentary Education Committee the issue that has arisen with the instructions given by the Minister of Education to tear up pages from a specific book. This is a very serious matter that has to do with the content of our education, but also the Education Ministry’s approach itself.

After the unprecedented criticism of the Education Minister Mr. Prodromou by the President of the Republic himself with the extremely rare occurrence of the Presidency issuing a statement and criticizing his policy decisions after a meeting between the President and the Minister, we had another unprecedented institutional criticism today: The Attorney General refuted the Education Minister’s claims that supposedly the prosecution of an art-educator painter is a case for the Legal Service.

Mr. Prodromou refuses to take responsibility for his actions. He blames the Legal Service for going after works of art and the Ministry’s bureaucrats for the mediaeval tearing of pages of books. He blames the bureaucrats of the Ministry for his generally authoritarian and reactionary behaviour and hides behind everyone else, while we all know that all the political decisions that were taken were his own.

Mr. Prodromou expresses a completely backward and authoritarian mentality in the education system. This mentality threatens both education and our democratic culture.

After today’s developments, the Minister of Education must realise that there is only one way forward, namely that of assuming political responsibility and showing respect. He should resign and go home.