SCHOOL was out yesterday as the island’s 4,500 primary and nursery school teachers came out on strike to demand pay rises.
About 1,000 of the striking teachers braved the rain to march to the Presidential Palace in Nicosia to urge President Clerides to intervene on their behalf.
The Cabinet is due to consider the teachers’ demand when it meets today, a ministerial committee chaired by Education Minister Ourannios Ioannides having failed to decide on the matter on Monday. The teachers, represented by the POED union, are threatening an indefinite strike if the government does not give in to their demand that their salaries be brought into line with those of their colleagues in secondary schools, who were recently promised pay rises by the government.
Disgruntled parents were yesterday repeating their threats to take undisclosed “dynamic action” of their own should the strike action continue.
“We are not demanding anything, we are only defending our children’s right to learn and not to have their lessons disrupted,” said Heraclis Papandreou, chairman of the Pancyprian Association of parents of primary school pupils.
Putting pressure on the Cabinet, Papandreou said parents would take action tomorrow if the dispute between teachers and Ministry was not resolved today.
Reports yesterday suggested parents were planning to respond to the teachers’ strike action by blockading schools and keeping children at home. Papandreou did not confirm or deny the reports yesterday, saying only that such possibilities had been discussed.
Minister Ioannides yesterday urged parents to “tone things down”. He also said the government would not negotiate with teachers while they were on strike. Ioannides has condemned the teachers’ strike action, saying they should have awaited the conclusion of official negotiations on the pay issue.
Despite the reactions from state and parents, the mood among the protesting teachers outside the Presidential Palace yesterday was resolute.
“We are determined to fight to the end, till teachers are vindicated,” one protester said.
The chairman of the House Education Committee, Sofoklis Hadjiyianis, yesterday stressed the need for dialogue between all involved in the dispute. He suggested his committee might provide the ideal forum for such discussions.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
