A HEATED ROW broke out at parliament yesterday when AKEL deputy Yiannos Lamaris condemned the Chairman of the House Education Committee for refusing to discuss the issue that arose with allowing access to public universities with international accreditation.
In response, Committee Chairman Nicos Tornaritis of DISY said “no one should move ahead with one-sided actions that would ignite more fires that lower the tone”.
Earlier in the day, Lamaris had expressed his party’s concerns over the “first-of-its-kind” refusal by the Chairman of the House Education Committee to respond to a plea by the government and House Plenum to discuss the matter of regulations for extra positions at state universities for students with international accreditation”.
He added: “The Committee Chairman felt and feels that he has the sole authority to determine what the Committee’s agenda will be; this is the first time something like this has happened”.
Lamaris said no one else had objected to the matter being discussed last Thursday, when the House Plenum almost unanimously refused to pass the relevant regulations tabled by the Cabinet as a matter of urgency.
“AKEL expresses its concern at the delays in discussing this matter, which has not only provoked debates among the public, but also out of ordinary measures by the teachers’ trade union, OELMEK,” said Lamaris.
If the University of Cyprus (CY) goes ahead and decides to allow three per cent of its students – or more – access to the university with international accreditation such as GCEs, the AKEL MP said this would provoke an even worse crisis in the education sector.
“We are sorry, but the only people responsible for such a development will be the Chairman of the House Education Committee and all those who supported his refusal to discuss the matter,” said Lamaris.
In response, Tornaritis blamed the Education Minister’s “amateur handling of the matter”, adding that Lamaris wanted to discuss regulations that will be implemented in a year’s time.
DISY’s position, he added, is to set specific timeframes for the matter to be discussed, “and certainly not before the end of the year, so we can conclude on the regulations and achieve our goal for the fairest possible system for Cypriot students and their access to higher education institutes in Cyprus, but also Greece”.
Tornaritis also wondered whether UCY would have been stopped from making its own regulations if the matter had been discussed at parliament yesterday.
DIKO Deputy Athena Kyriakidou also joined in the row, criticising Tornaritis changing his attitude towards the whole issue. “We are seeing certain members of the Education Council fanatically supporting access for students with GCEs and suddenly, whilst under pressure from OELMEK and the public, and in view of the European elections, they have made a 180 degree turn and changed their minds,” she said.
“I am referring to the Chairman of the Education Committee, who for a year now has been fanatically supporting access for students with GCEs at the Education Council; despite this, he speaks of clear positions. I have never seen such contradicting views,” said Kyriakidou.
