AKEL: Evidently unsuitable for local education, the Minister. Education

"The new incident in a specific high school in Larnaca, with the protagonist again being the same principal, causes indignation," says AKEL in a statement, stressing that "the Ministry of Education, instead of advocating such practices as that of the particular principal, should deal with the real problems of education that are not the students' hair. But when the Minister of Education engages in regressive notions and imagines schools as camps, he is self-evidently unsuitable for the education of the country".

Such is the announcement

The new incident in a specific high school in Larnaca, with the protagonist and again the same principal, causes indignation. The principal decided on the first day of school to expel, without any recommendation, dozens of high school first graders for their haircuts. He is the same principal who a few months ago did not give diplomas to students because he did not approve of their hairstyles during the graduation ceremony. These practices are blatantly anti-pedagogical and outside the spirit of the school regulations themselves.

These authoritarian practices and these phenomena find ground in the provocative coverage given to them by the Minister of Education, within the general spirit of conservatism and mothballing that governs the government in matters of education and beyond. The Commissioner for the Protection of Children's Rights herself complained that the Minister has not bothered to reply to her letter in relation to the incident at last year's graduation ceremony of the same school. This time, Mr. Prodromou initially denied that expulsions were imposed on the students. He then attempted to attack organized parents who fought back. And finally, he got to the point yesterday, talking to a television station about equating schools with camps.

The Ministry of Education, instead of advocating such practices as that of the particular director, should deal with the real problems of education that are not the hair of the students. But when the Minister of Education engages in regressive notions and imagines schools as camps, he is self-evidently unsuitable for the education of the country.