Prodromou: "Schools ready to operate from Monday"

The schools are ready to operate from Monday, with the solutions that have been given, announced the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth Prodromos Prodromou, after a meeting with the Presidents of the School Boards who have taken on a coordinating role in the work of adapting classrooms in the schools and the furniture with the aim of the operation of the schools on the basis of the Health Protocols.

In statements after a meeting held at the Ministry of Education, Mr. Prodromou said that "what has been done so far and the readiness of schools throughout Cyprus was recorded" and added that "schools are ready everywhere."

He said that the rotation will not work but in the rare cases, as he said, that we have three instead of two joined desks "there must be understanding and patience for a few days until the single desks are gone".

He added that one or two school ephorates with most of the schools have coordinated the other ephorates and the pan-Cypriot coordinator in coordination with the Ministry has coordinated the overall work.

"Our initial plan is to cover our schools with the use of double desks for one child as was done last May, and to add, depending on the room and the number of students, the number of single desks - there will be no single desks everywhere - for to comply with the rules of distance provided in the Health Protocol ", he added.

He also said that the inability of the market to immediately supply the number of single-seater desks we need has temporarily led to the merging of two-seater desks.

The planning has already been done, according to the Minister of Education, "and the school ephorates will proceed in the coming weeks to replace the desk joints with a number of single desks that will come".

Mr. Prodromou said that in practice we have seen some ephorates in some schools already have single desks in all rooms and added that "this proves that we can do it."

At this point, Mr. Prodromou thanked the school ephorates which worked non-stop in August, as he said, without hours and on Sundays and holidays and "they make us white-faced in terms of readiness".

He also said that they discussed other issues, such as school supplies, and that their supply should continue.

Mentioning that the schools will operate this year in special conditions with the implementation of protocols, Mr. Prodromou said that they also discussed issues such as the utilization of employees to guard the schools (outdoor surveillance, implementation of protocols, special operation of canteens).

In addition, Mr. Prodromou said that a meeting with the Union of Communities is planned "to see the small school ephorates" in the region.

Asked about the cost of the changes so far, Mr. Prodromou said that "we knew the cost from the beginning" because there was planning and estimation for the supply of the number of single desks, adding that "the single desks needed to fill in the two-seater according to the numbers are those that have been presented to the Council of Ministers since August 21st ".

"We are within the budget we had from the beginning and the school boards with prudence, sparingly and with the right procedures provided, do the work," he added.

He added that "we are implementing a second plan by merging the desks and then the mergers will be replaced".

He said that "in the few cases where people, in order to be able to have ready-made rooms, have exceptionally joined three instead of two desks, there the joints of the three desks will be immediately replaced with single desks".

If they did not join three desks, the only solution would be - which we had foreseen from the beginning - to have alternating morning, afternoon classes, he added.

The Minister of Education explained that he excludes part-time study (one group one day and another the next) because "any loss of teaching time is more burdensome for children who are in a less favorable environment and in remote areas".

"Our common goal with the Pancyprian Coordinating Committee of School Boards and with our parents and teachers is to take advantage of the opportunity for all children to go to school safely," he stressed.

Asked if the single-seat desks will be maintained when the conditions do not require it, Mr. Prodromou said that "where single-seater desks will be constructed according to the specifications of the desks, they can be maintained" and referred to the example of the Pancyprian High School which was very good organized with single desks.

Asked to comment on the announcement of the auxiliary secretarial staff of the public schools according to which he will go on an indefinite strike if his requests are not accepted during the discussion of their issue in the Education Committee in the Parliament, Mr. Prodromou said that the requests of the auxiliary secretarial staff are being discussed at the Ministry of Education and we will not decide in Parliament, adding that "we are in cooperation with the office of the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection and the issue that has been raised will be resolved".

Regarding the employment and salary demands of this staff, according to Mr. Prodromou, we are discussing them and we will discuss them and we are moving forward with the logic of cooperation ".

"The secretarial staff have always worked there, and they have been working with a specific regime and we will see what is possible" and "if there is any room for improvement," he said, adding that "the needs that exist are many and we will prioritize them."

He stated that "in special schools we have needs in both kindergartens and pre-primary" and added that "at the moment it does not help everyone to propose their own", but dialogue helps.

According to the Minister of Education, the dialogue is in progress at the Ministry, meetings have been held and more will be held with the trade unions representing these employees.

Besides, the Chairman of the Pancyprian Coordinating Committee of School Ephorates Dinos Ellinas, who also leads the school ephorate in Limassol, said that "there was excellent cooperation and coordination" and "we are ready and the schools will start normally on Monday".

At the same time, he continued, "we will be ready for any issues that arise from Monday, in cooperation with the management teams of the schools, we will help so that there is nothing to sideline the beginning of the school year".

Mr. Ellinas said that the school ephorates start from Monday "to implement the decision of the Ministry in relation to the single desks".

This should be done either in the afternoons or on weekends without marginalizing the work of teachers, he added.

In his intervention at this point, Mr. Prodromou said that "if it were possible for the local market to meet the needs, there would be the installation of single-seater desks from the beginning, which we had foreseen and the budget had been approved".

Source: KYPE