WAS THE state school teachers’ union OELMEK joking when it asked, in all seriousness, that schools should be exempted from the smoking ban in public buildings that would come into effect on January 1?
No, and the union boss was not joking when she said that the teachers were not demanding preferential treatment, but only, “within the boundaries of the law, for some arrangements to be made.”
Any legal provision that allowed teachers to smoke in school buildings would not just constitute preferential treatment, but it would make a complete mockery of the law, not to mention horrifically bad example it would be setting.
The Education Ministry, quite rightly, sent a circular forbidding smoking in school-yards, which means that from the new year, there would be a total ban within school grounds. Any teacher who wanted to indulge in their addiction would have to leave the grounds.
While this is a perfectly reasonable measure, the spoilt teachers, who are accustomed to getting things their own way, could not possibly tolerate being inconvenienced. The union called a meeting last week and decided to put across its proposal for an exemption to the law to its employer – the state. It was entitled to do so under a provision of the law, which stipulated that an employer could allow smoking in a room, at the request of employees, on condition that it was a closed area and properly ventilated.
The provision was for offices and not for schools, which should at all times be smoke free areas, but in Cyprus we are experts at dealing with the technicalities of the law while ignoring its spirit.
A school is not like an office in which there are only adults and some allowances could be made.
Then there is also a cost involved in setting up a smoking room, with good ventilation in every state school in Cyprus; why should the taxpayer foot the bill?
If a teacher is desperate for a cigarette during the school-day, he or she should leave the school grounds during a break or free period and light up in the street. The union claiming that teachers would be setting a bad example smoking outside the grounds, where they could be seen by the students, is disingenuous, to say the least.
Teachers would happily smoke in the playground, if it were allowed, and not care about setting a bad example, because it would be more convenient than leaving the grounds every time they wanted a cigarette.
State school teachers always get what they want and it would not be a surprise if our weak politicians satisfied this ridiculous demand.
Deputies, in particular, are in no position to take a principled stand considering they have made sure the law allowed smoking in one public building – the legislature.
