A RECORD 35,644 graduates are currently on the ‘teachers’ list’, which is being fuelled by the addition of thousands of names of Greeks seeking teaching jobs in Cyprus.
Cyprus has a unique system for teacher appointments where graduates in any field can add their name to a list and be appointed as a teacher at any point as their name moves up the list. It could even be 20 years later.
At the end of 2009, there were 28,591 people on this list, and the year before that 31,256.
According to the Education Service Commission, last year 6,295 applications were submitted, and 4,866 of those were added to the list.
The figure of 6,295 however is not necessarily individuals as one person may apply for a few posts at a time.
Between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009, some 5,170 applications were approved and added to the catalogue, and between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008, around 4,790 applications were added to the list.
One of the main reasons for the growing backlog of those still waiting to be appointed has been the increase in Greek applicants.
In 2009, some 1027 Greeks were added to the catalogue out of a total of 5,171 applications. However by 2010 the figure had more than doubled, with another 2,135 Greeks added to the list out of 4,866 new applications.
The development means that while previously Cypriot graduates had to wait up to 20 year to be appointed in some cases, this could now stretch to 30 years.
An official at the Commission, who preferred to remain unnamed, said that philologists, for example, who submitted applications in 2009 could now have to wait 30 years to be appointed as there are currently 1,200 philologists in schools at the moment.
However, he confirmed that it varies from year to year and according to profession. “The time you wait is not something stable….in 2000 a physics teacher may have only needed to wait two years, but he may wait longer now,” he said.
The number of teachers appointed to permanent posts each year is also on the decline.
In 2008, some 948 posts were filled, in 2009, around 737 were filled, and in 2010 only 427 were appointed.
The official at the Education Service Committee said this was due to the fact that some years ago it depended on budgetary allocation as well as on the number of teachers retiring as to how many slots would become available. However now it only depends on those retiring. This raises another problem if the retirement age is increased any time soon. Currently, the retirement age of teachers is 60 but there were discussions to raise it to 63.
