EDUCATION ended the week in turmoil yesterday, with pupils slamming their teachers on television and trainee teachers taking over the ministry to promote their demands.
Earlier this week, Antenna television broadcast a tape of a slanging match between a teacher and a pupil at a Nicosia secondary school. The row was taped secretly by the student, who claimed his teacher had made threats against him.
Teachers’ union OELMEL yesterday slammed the channel’s decision to air the tape as “illegal and a violation of human rights.”
The Education Ministry has ordered an investigation into the case.
A similar incident then came to light on Thursday, when students at a Limassol secondary school called television channels during school hours to report a row between a teacher and some pupils. The youngsters claimed that the teacher in question had “exercised violence” against one of them for deliberately damaging his car.
Some parents arrived at the scene to complain about the teacher’s behaviour.
The Press Ethics Committee issued an announcement yesterday calling on mass media to handle incidents involving minors with more care.
“It is necessary to respect international conventions regarding the protection of children and avoid airing cases of juvenile delinquency. You must also act in line with the provisions of journalism’s code of practice regarding the right to privacy, taking photos and accurate reporting,” said the announcement.
But the Education Ministry had more than one problem to handle on Thursday, as around 200 trainee gymnastics teachers took over the ministry to voice their demands.
The students want the government to undertake reforms in the education system creating more positions for elementary schoolteachers in the public sector and improving teaching standards.
Minister Ouranios Ioannides was out of the country at the time so the ministry’s general director Petros Kareklas received a representation of the students and promised them their demands would be looked into. Students asked to receive reassurances in writing, but their demand was rejected.
Kareklas was not available for comment yesterday.
Intercollege Executive Dean and sociologist Nicos Peristianis said yesterday the sometimes rebellious behaviour of pupils reflected social changes. He said observers should examine the problem carefully before assigning responsibility to either side, teachers or students.
“There is no real crisis. The traditional element of respect in relations between students and teachers, children and their parents, citizens and policemen or even voters and politicians is a thing of the past. It gave its place to democratic principles which prevail internationally,” Peristianis told the Cyprus Mail.
“The question is how can teachers impose their authority on students?” he asked.
“Many educators try to exercise some control over pupils but find it difficult because in the eyes of children today no one, not even their teacher, knows everything.”
Referring to the past week’s events, Peristianis said both sides – students and teachers – should accept responsibility for the trouble.
“In the first case, if the teacher really did threaten the student then the second was justified to record their conversation. It is possible that the teacher demanded some respect, which he could not get, so one thing led to another and the two ended up quarrelling,” the sociologist said.
Commenting on the second incident which took place on Thursday, Peristianis said: “a student has no right to damage his teacher’s car, but the teacher should not blame someone without having evidence about who did it.”
He said teachers should be resourceful to be able to handle youngsters.
“These days, teachers need to be very talented in what they do. They have a duty to find ways of earning children’s respect instead of demanding it.”
Regarding the student demo at the Ministry, Peristianis charged that some student demands were unrealistic, adding that others were worth considering.
“They cannot possibly expect that all of them will be hired by the government when they graduate,” he said, at the same time blaming the state for giving young people so many incentives to become teachers that it ended up with more graduates than it needed.
“They have created the perfect profession with benefits that no other job has. The dream of almost every youngster is to work at a school, so students compromise their dreams before they even start their life,” he pointed out.
Peristianis finds students’ call for measures to improve the standard of teaching justified.
He added that teachers’ demos in general were usually aimed at protecting their working rights instead of improving education.
“They should not only focus on salaries. They should also promote ideas to solve problems in education,” Peristianis suggested.
The sociologist also held the ministry partly responsible for teachers’ frequent strikes.
“The ministry usually satisfies demands when it is under pressure, failing to deal with the real problems,” he argued.
Teachers’ union OELMEK and student unions yesterday reiterated their determination to block government plans aiming to cut junior civil servants’ salaries by 10 per cent.
The unions are planning a demonstration outside the Presidential Palace next Thursday.
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.
