Reopening of the schools

Statement by Christos Christofides, Head of the Education Affairs Bureau of AKEL on the reopening of schools

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 21 May 2020, Nicosia

We would have liked to begin today’s statement on the day our schools are reopening differently. Unfortunately, we have before us the culmination of the Anastasiades-DISY government’s sloppiness and irresponsibility in the field of education.

Hours before the first school bell rang, the government ruling forces decided that our children with disabilities who are in the special units would not return to their school. They cited as an excuse the need for children to take tests and in effect prohibited them from returning to school, because they themselves are unprepared. They deprived these children what they have been preparing themselves, namely for their return to school for several days. They deprived them of this day of joy, making an inhuman discrimination and sending a message to children and their parents that they are second-class people.

Unfortunately, what we have been complaining about for weeks that children with disabilities have effectively been sidelined by the Ministry of Education has been confirmed.

Unfortunately, this last-minute decision is not the only sign of sloppiness, a lack of seriousness on the part of the government ruling forces in the field of education.

On Tuesday evening, they suddenly decided not to reopen all-day schools.

Right now there are needs and gaps to be filled by hundreds of substitute teachers at all levels of education which are pending.

While our schools are reopening today, hundreds of children are still waiting for the tablets promised by the Ministry of Education so that they can have access to technology. Children from lower socio-economic strata have in essence been thrown out of the education system for two months now.

The inconsiderate decisions like those where one week they were saying kindergartens and high schools are opening and the following week that kindergartens won’t open and the first and second year high school won’t be returning, highlighted a problematic course in the field of public education which has victimized thousands of children and their parents.