Minister orders mobile security force for schools

IN THE wake of assaults on teachers and arson attacks at local secondary schools, the Education Ministry is proposing to set up a mobile security force to police schools.

Education Minister Ouranios Ioannides said this rapid reaction force would be manned by private security men and alerted by alarm systems in all schools.

Teachers’ unions have been calling for greater protection for their members, who they say are finding it increasingly difficult to deal with a rising tide of student aggression.

Yesterday, a 14-year-old Limassol student was questioned by police in connection with an alleged assault on one of his teachers. The youth was given a warning by police and suspended for 15 days by his school.

At least two other incidents of pupils attacking teachers have been reported over the past year.

Ioannides was yesterday keen to stress that such incidents were only a problem at "specific" schools.

Ten such "problem" schools had already been fitted with alarm systems and the plan was to extend this security cover to all schools, the Minister said.

"Our proposal is that each school be covered by alarm systems. At the same time, schools will be linked with a mobile unit in every town," Ioannides explained.

"This mobile team will be made up of one or two or more cars manned appropriately so that – at a moment’s notice – they can be at any school where there is a problem," he said. "We will hire services from companies that offer such policing possibilities," he added.

The minister said posting permanent security guards at all secondary schools would be ineffectual and was both impractical and too costly.

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