SECONDARY school teachers’ union OELMEK said yesterday it would not return to talks with the Education Ministry on the pressing issue of educational reform if certain conditions were not met.
“If our conditions are not met, we will not continue with the talks,” OELMEK president Iacovos Iacovou told the Cyprus Mail.
Iacovou blamed Education Minister Pefkios Georgiades for the breakdown.
“The union’s central board is in agreement that the talks, as they are being conducted, are going nowhere and we blame the Education Ministry for this entirely,” he said.
The rift occurred last Tuesday, when OELMEK representatives walked out of a primary and middle education council meeting, which had been discussing the educational reform system. The walkout occurred when the ministry pressed ahead with discussions on the remaining four chapters of the reform, despite having agreed to do so only after the first four chapters had been approved.
At the time, the ministry had expressed surprised at the union’s refusal to “listen to some of its thoughts, which we believe contribute towards the improvement, not the abolishment, of an appointment system that everyone admits needs modernisation”.
But Iacovou said: “We believe the first chapters are the axis on which the whole system rests upon. They are the basic factors that have to be workable before we even begin to discuss the other issues.”
In order of discussion, the eight chapters – which each have a series of subheadings – include administrative matters, upgrading and restructuring of the teachers’ training institute, the creation of an educational research centre, the systematic and continuous education of teachers from the day of their appointment until retirement, teacher training programmes, the restructuring and modernisation of public schools, teachers’ appraisals and evaluations of the educational system, and the teachers’ appointment list.
Iacovou said that as well expecting the ministry’s proposals on the first four chapters before going ahead with talks, the union demanded that the Education Minster restart meetings with the union’s secretary.
“These meetings have not taken place in over a year and are important because they are an opportunity to address and discuss educational issues, such as reducing the number of students per class at secondary schools, creating more teachers’ posts, extending department heads’ responsibilities.”
Iacovou said the ministry also had to stop introducing new measures without first discussing them with them.
“This year, they introduced a school of athletics and also a delinquency programme and we only heard of it at the last minute. Such procedures can’t go on,” he said.
Iacovou said the union’s central board had already sent Georgiades a brief letter asking for talks between him and them. The OELMEK president hopes that the meeting will take place as soon as the minister returns from abroad. During the meeting, union representatives plan to make known their conditions for talks to resume.
