At a meeting with representatives of the media today, the Minister of Education, Sports and Youth Mr Prodromos Prodromou made the following statements:
1. Operation of Skills Workshops in Primary Education and Secondary Schools
In the context of the launch of Skills Workshops in Primary Education and Secondary Schools from the school year 2023-2024, with a specific allocation of time and planning, as decided at the recent Cabinet meeting, consultations are being held with the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works and the Police in order to introduce a Traffic Education and Road Safety module.
The relevant education already provided in schools on this subject, as well as the use of the Police Traffic Education Park, will be integrated through systematic integrated planning in the operation of Skills Workshops in all schools. It is indeed very important from an early age, both for their personal safety and as tomorrow's citizens and transport users, that children are informed and receive traffic awareness training. In this way, schools can contribute both to the comprehensive education of pupils and to public safety and a better response to the problem of road accidents.
Therefore, with the innovation of running Skills Workshops together with sex education - as defined by the recent relevant legislation - it is possible to cultivate in separate thematic modules and in a more systematic way both Traffic Education and Road Safety, as well as Financial Literacy (according to the National Strategy recently adopted by the Council of Ministers), digital skills, protection against addictions, environmental education, etc.etc.
2. Schools in relation to the announced strike
Following a question raised in a letter from the Confederation of Secondary Education Parents' Associations, I would like to publicly communicate the response given by the Ministry regarding the announcement of a strike next Thursday 26 January 2023 by teachers' unions. Based on what has been communicated any strike would affect written exams in high schools as well as the high school curriculum. The Directorate of Secondary Education of the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth has acceded to changes in the schedule of the written assessment that would take place at that time so that students would not be affected and it would be completed at the time of the strike. As far as the operation of the secondary schools is concerned, this will inevitably have to be terminated at the beginning of the strike, at 12 noon, and therefore the students will have to leave school earlier.
At the same time, however, I would like to make a personal observation that the announced strike causes surprise and some concern. Of course there is no room for debate and it is undeniable that workers have the right to have demands and even to go on strike if necessary. Given this principled position, however, it is still paradoxical that we hear today that the wage indexation, the ATA, is being claimed by a government that has already restored it - even if only in part - after the previous administration had been forced to abolish it, and arrangements are still being made to extend it.
It is all the more surprising that just ten days before the elections an attempt is being made to exert pressure through a strike. Just as the President himself raised the question the other day, the question arises: Who is being pressured by such a strike?
IP
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