Teachers upset over schoolyard smoking ban

TEACHERS unions are up in arms over an Education Ministry circular banning them from smoking anywhere on school grounds, including outdoors.

“The law says that smoking is forbidden in all closed spaces with the exception of open spaces and outside areas,” said Eleni Semelidou, head of the Secondary School Teacher’s Union (OELMEK).

Semelidou said that under the law, teachers should be allowed to smoke in the schoolyard because it is an outdoor space.

“We are reacting because they said there would be no smoking, even in the yard,” said Semelidou.

When the smoking ban was first introduced in Cyprus, some teachers were angling for a smoking room within schools since under the law, the employers – in this case the Education Ministry – has an obligation to prove smoking areas for employees if requested.

This idea was shot down, as was the only remaining option – to smoke outside. However this was also nixed because it was felt that teachers smoking in the schoolyard would set a bad example to impressionable pupils.

The union has written back to the ministry to reconsider the schoolyard smoking ban. “Our position is that the law doesn’t cover this,” said Semelidou. The union also maintains that since they were not consulted at any point regarding the outside ban, they are not required to conform.



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.