Pupils to abstain from class to protest lack of planning

Secondary school pupils will skip the fifth and sixth periods in school on Friday saying authorities have failed to make adequate arrangements to cover syllabus missed during the coronavirus outbreak in the previous school year.

Psem, which represents secondary school pupils, says letters to the education ministry have gone unanswered. Syllabus missed last year has not been covered and pupils will be obliged to resort to private lessons to cover it, they said.

They also slammed conditions at the schools saying the obligation to wear masks only compounded the problems created by the heat and lack of air conditioning in the class rooms .

Psem said that some pupils have fainted and that they had asked the minister and the health ministry’s team of scientists to come up with solutions, but their request has gone unanswered and their proposals – including fewer pupils in class and shorter teaching period  — have been ignored.

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.