We need a public school that offers equal learning opportunities for all children

Statement by AKEL MP Christos Christofides after the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee for the Monitoring of Development Plans and Public Expenditure Control

 

14 September 2023

 

Today in the Parliamentary Audit Committee, we discussed the Auditor General’s 2020 report on the rationalisation of expenditure in public education. The report addresses issues that have been the subject of extensive public debate.

I would like to focus on two numerical indicators which, in our view, are of immense social and political importance.

The first indicator relates to the 45% increase in the number of pupils over the last five years in private primary education and the 25% increase in private secondary education. This is the result of the blows that public schooling has taken from the erroneous, not to say disastrous policy decisions of the previous government for pupils and the public school system.

It matters a great deal what policies a government follows, what it implements, what it asks teachers to implement in order to get the results it needs.

The second indicator, which I want to refer to, is a hidden indicator in the debates on education. It is the one that reveals that almost 59% of pupils from the lower socio-economic strata have low learning achievement, while the corresponding figure for pupils from the upper strata is 30%. School pupils from lower socio-economic strata in essence have less opportunities.

In short, it has been proved that a large number of our children are failing at school, not because they are not smart or because they lack skills, but because they come from a lower socio-economic and educational background and do not have the same opportunities as other children. For that reason, we need an education system that is just and ensures real equal opportunities for these children because by treating people who face inequalities in the same way is neither justice, nor equality.

It reminds us of Aesop’s fable: “Do not play tricks on your neighbors unless you can stand the same treatment yourself”.

In conclusion, we need a public school based on justice and equality, that treats each child individually, based on his or her real needs, weaknesses and gaps, so that we can have a society where all our children have equal opportunities to enjoy the benefits of learning.