Seven hundred students and fifty teachers were absent on Monday, first day of school reopening, from the Gymnasiums and Lyceums of the Paphos District, according to George Koutsidis, Senior Secondary Education Officer of Paphos.
In a statement to CNA, he said that today there were losses of 50-60 students and four to seven teachers per school in the secondary schools and high schools of Paphos District, which are either cases or contacts. He added, however, that there is also the possibility that many high school students were afraid to return to their schools over the next few days until they closed for the semester exams and preferred to stay home to study.
In total, he continued, 700 students and 50 teachers are currently absent from Paphos District High Schools and Lyceums.
According to Mr Koutsidis, on the first day after the Christmas holidays, students, teachers and support staff returned to schools with a negative rapid test.
According to him, the number of students in Pafos District, in Gymnasiums and Lyceums is 5.692 students and all of them had to undergo a diagnostic test, resulting in a crowded weekend at the rapid test centres.
However, he estimated that the inconvenience was only for the first day, since, as he explained, from now on there will be tests in schools, twice a week in each school.
Arrangement for substitutions and hybrid education called for by the President of the Paphos Federation of Secondary Parents' Associations
The President of the Paphos Federation of Secondary and Technical Education Parents' Associations called for an immediate arrangement for substitute teachers absent from schools, Christodoulos Demetriou, so that "the education of students is not left behind". In a statement to CNA, he also called for a plan to be in place in all schools to provide hybrid education in view of the quarterly examinations for high school students so that there is no unequal treatment of students who will be under restriction.
Mr. Demetriou called it a "necessity" to make provision for those students, especially seniors, who will be under restriction and will sit for the second or even the third set of exams so that they do not miss the delivery of the second quarter syllabus.
The circumstances of the pandemic clearly affect seniors in particular because of the quarter exams they are taking for the first time and at the end of the national exams that will determine their future, he said.
Therefore, he continued, "we insist that there should be a suspension of the quarter exams for seniors for this year only and that they should claim their places at universities through the Pancyprian exams, which are colloquially the most reliable way of admission to universities."
The effectiveness of the comprehensive implementation or not of the four-months should not be to the detriment of the future of the current senior students, he said. He concluded by opening the schools by wishing principals, teachers and students strength and patience in dealing with the difficult situations in schools due to the pandemic.
Source: KYPE
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