Students suspended in lack of air-con gripe

The one-day suspension of 100 students who refused to return to their classrooms last week because there was no air-conditioning was perfectly justifiable, the management of the Lanitio Lyceum in Limassol said on Monday.

The school’s head master, Giorgos Iosifides, said that the 100 students were suspended after they abstained from class last Wednesday and urged other students to do the same even though they had been reassured that steps had been taken to solve the problem. The suspension affected half of the students on Monday, and the other half on Tuesday.

Iosifides told the Cyprus News Agency that the day before the impromptu class abstention, he and a group of students had arranged a meeting with the president of the Limassol school district board on the matter, while the school had introduced alternative solutions such as ceiling fans in each classroom. The school district board official had also told them that he would visit within the week to discuss a solution. The head master had even helped students write a letter with their demands.

But despite these assurances, a group of students refused to return to their classes, Iosifides said.

“Since their demand was immediately looked into there was no excuse to abstain from classes,” he said.

The school district board has since deemed that at the moment air-conditioning units cannot be installed in all classrooms and has arranged for the installation of a second ceiling fan in some classrooms, Iosifides said.

He added that air conditioning units in all classrooms will be possible after the installation of photovoltaics at the school as part of the education ministry’s five-year plan to make all schools energy self-sufficient.

The head of the Limassol school district board, Dinos Ellinas, said that they will also install sun blocking curtains in some classes and construct a shelter in the school yard.

 

 

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