Students protest after demands not heard since November

By Evie Andreou

HIGH school students in all towns gathered outside the Education ministry and district education offices on Wednesday morning to protest that their demands submitted to minister Costas Kadis in November had not been met.

Student body PSEM delivered a memo for Kadis reminding him that two months had passed since their last meeting but that no steps were taken to resolve their problems.

Among others, the students had asked for reduced fees for the university entrance exams and the state educational institutes and that needy students be exempt from these costs.

They also asked for the elimination of tariffs in school buses, an increase in places offered in state higher education institutions and the assurance that all places will be distributed to candidates.

PSEM said that they have also sent letters to political parties asking that they convey their issues to the House Education committee.

“They did not even study our proposals and did not invite us to dialogue. It is not enough that so much time has passed and nothing has happened, applications for the national exams begin in a few days and families will have to pay more than €100 so that their children can take the exams,” PSEM said.

The Education ministry’s secondary education director, Yiannakis Efthymiou, said that it saddens the ministry that the students resort to such measures for their demands.
He said that he had met with the students two days earlier and that he told them that it is only through dialogue between them and also their parents that the problems may be solved.

“We are making every effort to resolve the problems that trouble the students, taking into consideration the current economic situation,” Efthymiou said.

He added that the ministry is trying to see if they can secure funds so that registration fees for the university entrance exams are decreased.

“The students were informed that the ministry is trying to find ways to satisfy some of their demands, primarily aiming to help the truly vulnerable groups of the student population,” the ministry announced after the protest.

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