By George Vichas
With a significant percentage of teachers and students staying away from educational institutions, the first bell rang in primary schools yesterday, secondary schools, high schools and technical schools after the Christmas break.
Amid the outbreak and the specifics of the measures, students and teachers returned to school, with a negative 48-hour rapid test as a prerequisite.
"We are recording shortages and needs" says PDED
Speaking to the Cyprus Times, PDED president Myria Vasileiou said it was a difficult first day, on the issue of staffing and the need for replacements. "We are recording shortages and needs and we are on the ground finding solutions where needed."
She noted there were shortages not only in teaching staff but also in secretarial staff.
In terms of numbers, in primary schools, a percentage approaching 19% of pupils remained at home while in pre-primary the figure was up, reaching 29%.
In terms of teachers and replacement needs, over the weekend action was taken to fill 320 or so posts of which around 70 were not filled, to which another 100 or so were added yesterday.
"The Ministry should have been ready by now," says the OELMEK
With the problem of staffing and replacements at the top of the notebook, the OELMEK had its first day in schools yesterday.
Speaking to the Cyprus Times, the organisation's president Kostas Hazisavas said that about 7% of teachers stayed at home, either because they were outbreaks, contacts or for some other reason at the time when pupils did not show up at schools at a rate of 19%. "Out of these, only 30% were replaced which creates problems," he noted. "The Ministry should have been ready already so that the substitutes were already in the schools."
As Hajisavas explained, the Ministry of Education must find and provide solutions immediately. He referred to the issue of substitutes, calling on the Ministry to provide incentives. "Hiring for a number of hours and not full teaching hours. It is not easy, each one has both teaching and administrative duties because of the protocols."
At the same time, he expressed hope that the Ministry will ensure that the vacancies are filled immediately.
"There were no problems beyond what was expected" says OLTEK
For his part, OLTEK President Panagiotis Lysandrou told the Cyprus Times that out of a total of 670 teachers that the Technical Schools have, about 60 were absent.
At the same time out of a total of 5,000 students, about 250 remained at home.
As for how the day went, he said there were no problems beyond what was expected due to the special circumstances.
"The situation is manageable and systematic and targeted solutions are being given," says the Director of Secondary Education
"Actions are being taken so that the gaps created are filled.The first day went smoothly thanks to the planning that was prepared days ago", says for his part the Director of Secondary Education, Kyprianos Louis, who stressed that the situation is manageable and systematic and targeted solutions are being given.
Speaking to the Cyprus Times, he said that on Friday the needs for replacement had risen to 183, 124 were arranged for the reopening of schools and the remaining 59, together with the needs that arose on the first day, brought the total number to 203 which would be covered by specific actions by Tuesday morning.
As Mr. Louis explained, no particular problems were created in that apart from the arrangements that were made, the percentage that was not covered related to absences that occurred in previous years for various reasons other than covid.
As for teachers in secondary education, 8.26% were absent. Among students, 18.6% were absent. 5.2% were cases, 3.3% were contacts, while 10.1% were absent for other reasons.
55 employees from the School Boards stayed home
Finally, regarding support staff, according to School Board President Dino Ellinas, during yesterday's day, of the approximately 250 employees, 8 people from the public kindergartens, 10 primary school cleaners, 15 middle school cleaners, 22 chaperones and one person from the auxiliary secretarial staff were absent.
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
