Police raid homes in private lessons crackdown

POLICE have conducted raids on several houses in Nicosia and Paphos as part of a crackdown on teachers at state schools who give illegal private lessons outside the classroom.

Police spokesman Demetris Demetriou said five raids were carried out on two dwellings in Nicosia and three in Paphos following information passed on to officers by the Education Ministry, but confirmed no arrests had been made.

“We didn’t find anything untoward and the dwellings were closed,” he said, “but we will be carrying on our investigations.”

Justice Minister Doros Theodorou warned earlier this week that teachers who continued to “play hide and seek” by giving out of hours lessons would find themselves behind bars.

Speaking on his return from Italy yesterday, President Tassos Papadopoulos said there would be “no toleration whatsoever” of teachers who continued to give lessons “on the side,” and warned “the issue will not be forgotten for the entire year.”

Reports in the local press this week claimed that the illegal practice nets teachers over £30 million a year, which goes untaxed.

The Education Ministry says its clamp down will be effective in curbing such profiteering, and the Association of Private Tutoring Institutions welcomed the government’s move yesterday

But teachers at state schools argue the campaign will tarnish their reputation.

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.