In the event of a teacher's absence in Primary Education, no child is left out of class, Minister of Education, Sports and Youth, Athina Michaelidou, tells CNA regarding the issue of replacements.
Regarding homeschooling, the Minister of Education told CNA that a number of children unfortunately, due to very serious problems, need to remain out of school for a certain period of time, "this, school, education facilitates and we offer what is called homeschooling."
"What we are going to do is to organize, if I may use the term, better organize home education from the next school year, so that the criteria for who is eligible, the methodology, how home education is done and how it is offered, as well as better quality content in home education, can be improved," explained Ms. Michaelidou. Protocols are already being drawn up, she added.
"We will be ready before the end of this school year, so that we can implement them next school year. Protocols will be put in place, training will be provided so that we can offer the best possible service to these children for as long as they need to remain out of school," he added.
There are replacement hours for teachers
Asked about the issue of teacher replacement and asked to comment on statements that children are left without a substitute teacher, the Minister of Education said that "when we have a teacher replacement due to illness or for any other reason that exceeds a few days, that is, several days of replacement, we definitely find people from the list of appointees and there is interest."
"The problem exists with the short-term positions, one day, two, three days, where people on the list of appointees refuse or there is no interest from people to take on this position. I want to make it clear that in the case of the absence of a teacher in elementary school, no child is left out of class. Arrangements are made so that they either attend another class or are replaced by another teacher. There are replacement hours for teachers," he noted.
Therefore, the Minister of Education continued, "we do not want to mislead the public by saying that thousands of children are left (without a substitute teacher) when there is an issue with one or two days of teacher absence."
"It is the right of teachers, mainly for health reasons, to be absent for two or three days, and there is this arrangement that is already in place," he added.
Ms. Michaelidou said, at the same time, that in addition to these arrangements, they are already discussing with the POED other ways to make the replacement for these few days more attractive.
"So, we are in the consultation stage and we will soon have announcements about this as well," he concluded.
Source: KYPE
