PARENTS OF pupils at the Ayia Marina Xyliatou primary school have called on their children to bunk classes indefinitely after the Education Ministry reduced the number of teachers at the rural school.
The parents called for an indefinite strike after discovering that only four teachers would be running six classes for this school year. The ministry argues that it is not feasible or fair to have teachers running classrooms with four to eight children in them.
Head of the school’s parents’ association, Achilleas Michail, argued that the ministry was forcing people to consider abandoning the countryside by insisting on lumping classes together.
“Our request is for every class to have its teacher. Last year, the school operated with six classrooms, six teachers and a headmistress. Now, they have only brought us four teachers, at a time when the school serves four communities in the surrounding areas, and the number of pupils in the first grade has increased since last year,” said Michail.
The parent representative referred to a letter written by the coordinator of all the communities in the Nicosia district, Spyros Georgiou, requesting that the ministry set up a regional school and nursery in the area. Michael argued that this letter has gone unanswered since August 2008.
Until the ministry reinstated a teacher for each classroom “the decision of all parents in the communities without exception is for the children not to go to classes”, said Michail.
Alexandros Kouratos, responsible for primary education at the Education Ministry, responded that it was not economically viable anymore for teachers to run classes that have as little as four to eight pupils. He highlighted that this was a political decision which had been passed on to the area’s residents a year earlier.
“The number of teachers appointed there is based on the needs of the specific school,” he said. Kouratos argued that the parents were aware that last year’s full staffing of the school was an exception to the rule.
“They got a special exemption last year. We explained to them this can’t continue for all schools of this type,” he said, adding that Georgiou had been fully informed of the situation.
“At the end of the day, if we put a teacher in every class that has eight, seven or four children, while all other schools have 25 to 30 pupils, I’m very sorry but that is not a democratic and humane school,” said Kouratos.
