OWNERS of afternoon schools have called on the government to take action against state teachers who illegally give private lessons during after-school hours. The owners’ association has claimed that their schools have a 25 per cent share of the afternoon private lesson market compared with state teachers who have a huge 75 per cent. Their figures may not be accurate, as there is no reliable data for calculating market share, but the problem does exist and it needs to be addressed by the education ministry.
But the problem of public employees moonlighting in the afternoons, in blatant violation of the terms and conditions of their employment, is not restricted to state school teachers. It is much more widespread. Some government doctors also have private practices in the afternoons, while many ministry officials now offer their services as consultants to the private sector.
Apart from the existence of a conflict of interest, these public servants involved in the black economy are essentially cheating their employer — the state — and depriving less privileged workers in the private sector of job opportunities.
Speaking on Thursday about his plans to reform and modernise the education system, Education Minister Pefkios Georgiades said that one of his priorities was to put an end to plague of afternoon tuition. This is easier said than done. One of his predecessors attempted to tackle the afternoon lessons industry and got nowhere. Police raided the homes of a couple of state teachers and caught them in the act of giving private tuition, but after that nothing was heard about the case again; nobody knows if the teachers were sacked or charged. After the raids, state teachers went underground like fugitives, giving private lessons at different places — at a different student’s house each week — so they would not be caught.
No matter how hard the law comes down on the moonlighting teachers, afternoon tuition will continue because there is a demand for it from parents. Apart from the intense competition to get into universities, the school day is too short and there is apparently not enough time to cover the whole curriculum properly. The logical solution would be either to reduce the curriculum, which is difficult since the state schools follow the Greek education system, or to extend the school day by a couple of hours. The latter is the only realistic option, but would teachers agree to work longer hours and sacrifice half the afternoon which many of them currently use to generate a tax-free income?
Unfortunately, even extending the school day by two hours would not resolve the problem, because some teachers would continue to create the demand for afternoon tuition as they have done for the past 20 years. It is in their financial interest. And they are in a perfect position to do it — they can teach badly in class, refuse to cover the entire curriculum, fail to help weaker students, and mark down all their students. They have been doing all sorts of things to generate afternoon business for themselves, so why would they stop if there was a longer working day? All that would happen would be that they would give even less in their morning jobs in order to conserve their energy for the money-making private lessons.
The same form of corruption and lack of integrity exists in other parts of the public sector. Some state hospital doctors, for instance, also have private afternoon practices at which they see the patients that they had no time to see in the mornings. The ongoing row at the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, which was discussed at the legislature on Thursday, is also a case in point. The doctors employed there insist that they should be entitled to see patients privately in the afternoon, while the director of the Institute and the board, quite rightly, refuse to give their approval for this. The dispute is threatening the very future of Institute, with the doctors refusing to budge an inch.
The Institute may not be state-owned but it is financed by the taxpayer, and the director is correct to take a hard line. As in the case of the teachers there would be a major conflict of interest. Would the doctors be more committed to their morning work at the Institute, for which they would get paid anyway, or to their afternoon private practice? And might not some be tempted to see more patients at their private practice in the afternoon and collect the fee for themselves than at the Institute in the mornings? Allowing the doctors to have private practices would give them a financial incentive to cheat the Institute. Perhaps they are all extremely honest and would never dream of doing such a thing, but then why are they so adamant about keeping their private practices? As in the case of the teachers, once there is a conflict of interest, professional relationships are plagued by mistrust, suspicion and divided loyalties.
This behaviour is indicative of how scandalously spoilt certain public sector workers have become, with the tolerance of successive government and vote-seeking politicians who constantly pander to them. Not only are they paid higher salaries than their colleagues in the private sector, they also enjoy many more benefits (free health care, two state pensions, retirement pay-offs, fewer working hours, longer holidays) and have much greater job security. But this is still not enough for them. Be they doctors or teachers, they also want a big share of the afternoon business. They do not care if they are depriving private sector employees of the opportunity to earn a respectable living as well.
As long as the public sector fat cats are raking in the cash, they do not care if the rest of us starve to death. To some, the private sector exists merely in order to finance the ever-rising living standards of public employees.
