List of state teachers giving private lessons handed to police

THE MINISTER of Education Andreas Demetriou has given police a list of public school teachers suspected of giving illegal afternoon lessons and a list of unlicensed extra-lesson institutes, he said yesterday.
“The list has been delivered and today I have spoken with the police, who will launch legal procedures so that all cases from the list are checked. The law will be enforced as is our obligation,” Demetriou said yesterday at a news conference.
The list was submitted to Demetriou on Friday by the Association of Cyprus Private Institutes (ACPI) and includes the personal details of dozens of public school teachers.
“We are talking about dozens. There are ten cases in Limassol, one in Paphos, 13 in Larnaca and 15 in Nicosia. These are named, and additional information is provided including their addresses. There is also another long list of people that includes names and specialty, but not addresses. Both lists, as well as the unlicensed institutes list, were given to police,” Demetriou confirmed.
Demtriou, however, also confirmed that the Ministry was not briefed on the method used by the ACPI in compiling the lists. “They considered that the list could be presented to me. It was presented to me and then I immediately gave it to police because there are criminal responsibilities and the first step is for the police to investigate each case one by one,” he said.
In addition to any legal sanctions, public school teachers found guilty of teaching afternoon lessons risk losing their job or some of their benefits. “There is always a possibility that when an action is so serious that after the completion of legal procedures it is judged necessary to impose sanctions, ending employment or early retirement-there are various options,” said Olympia Stylianou, General Director of the Ministry of Education.
Meanwhile, Demetriou highlighted the improvements expected to arise from the education reform, expected to minimise the need for extra lessons. “The great effort that we are making through the changes we are attempting to implement in the analytical programs is to reduce dependence on classes outside the school system,” he said.

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.