The goal of the Ministry of Education is the continuous operation of schools with physical presence and in order to achieve this goal "we will fight and do what is possible" assured on Tuesday the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth, Prodromos Prodromou.
"The goal is to continue to operate with a physical presence in the schools and we will fight, we will do everything possible, to give the replacements and to fill the gaps," said Mr. Prodromou in his statements to the Ministry.
He added that these are a response to the various comments that have been made so far, "but also wanting to emphasize and reiterate our thanks to the thousands of teachers and school principals with whom we have ongoing cooperation and who have responded to them. the particular difficulties ".
As the Minister of Education said, "we faced a great challenge with the reopening of schools in this situation and the outbreak of the pandemic, a challenge which we managed to face with enormous efforts and difficulties."
He noted that "both on the first and the second day of operation of the schools it was possible, despite the large numbers, to replace or replace the teachers, who had to be absent from the headquarters."
It is, he continued, "a very large number of teachers, both in Primary and Secondary Education, who had to remain under house arrest."
Mr. Prodromou said that "what has already happened since the holidays and throughout the previous weekend is that the directorates of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth (YPPAN) in cooperation with the directorates of the schools, and always in an open line with the Committee of Education Service (EVS), they managed to record the exact needs and to provide solutions for the replacement of the absent teachers ".
He added that "as is well known, the Education Service Committee is responsible for replacements, while the replacement is done through a public tender and an electronic procedure".
As the Minister of Education said, "especially under these conditions, through the EVS announcements, Primary Education was given the opportunity, due to the numbers, in addition to unappointed teachers to claim a replacement position and indefinite kindergarten teachers, as well as a philologist".
He explained that "in those cases where through the EVS procedures and the announcement there are not enough candidate teachers for replacements in the positions to be filled, the needs are met by the Ministry through a replacement process".
Furthermore, the Minister stated that "there is a procedure established for replacements, that is, teachers who serve in education are provided that have the duty to replace their colleagues for a certain number of hours, both in Primary and Secondary Education."
He added that "this is a second tank that has been utilized, while then we have utilized teachers from other programs of the Ministry of Education, who were able to replace teachers who were absent in Primary Education."
"As a result of all these actions, the schools after the end of the Christmas holidays have reopened normally and the departments that operated were all staffed," said, finally, the Minister of Education.
