Education Minister and teaching unions hit impasse, teachers to protest again

Teachers’ unions said they would protest again following an inconclusive meeting with Education Minister Kostas Hambiaouris on Tuesday.

Following an emergency meeting held after their meeting with Hambiaouris, the three teaching unions Poed, Oelmek, and Oltek said a new protest would be held and that each would hold board meetings on Monday July 23 to evaluate their next steps.

“The Education Minister and the cabinet’s decisions are the core reasons the school year will not start smoothly,” the unions said in a joint statement.

Teachers took to the streets last week to protest a cabinet decision to scrap a system allowing them to reduce their teaching hours according to their years of service.

The unions added that they had proposed a variety of alternatives to overcome the impasse they reached with Hambiaouris.

“Education and Culture Minister Kostas Hambiaouris led the initiative of the three teaching unions to founder.”

Following the impasse reached at the meeting, Hambiaouris said that the decisions of the cabinet could not be lifted.

“Unfortunately, it seems that our friends the educators insist on their opinions,” he said.  Hambiaouris said that the unions want to start from “zero”.

The Minister noted that staffing would continue based on the decisions of the cabinet and that the “first transfers have already been decided on”.  Staffing, Hambiaouris said, cannot stop, as it “would cause other problems in September.”

Asked if his stance on Tuesday reflected that of President Anastasiades, Hambiaouris said that statements would be made next week.

The impasse, the unions said, was due to the “intransigence” shown by the Education Minister from the start of the meeting.

Oelmek head, Yiannos Socratous said that education was in crisis after the meeting with Hambiaouris.

 

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