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The Minister of Education, Sports and Youth, Ms Athina Michaelidou, visited today the 2nd Primary School of Idali where a press conference on the PEDIA Programme was held.
The conference was held on the occasion of the completion of the upgrade of five school buildings to near-zero energy buildings through the PEDIA programme, which aims to upgrade the quality of school buildings and to create a healthy school environment that will provide children with opportunities for integrated physical, emotional, mental and social development: "We had the opportunity today at the Second Primary School of Idali to see the integrated intervention that is taking place within the PEDIA programme, which at this stage involves the complete environmental upgrading of five schools. Then, five more schools are planned to be upgraded and by 2028, 55 school units will be completely rebuilt on the basis of environmental criteria, so that we have modern infrastructure in our schools, because infrastructure also affects the school climate.
I had the pleasure to see the integration of all this in the school, in the curriculum: the children gave us a tour and were informed about what we have done in their school and how it affects their lives. For us this is the important thing, to have tomorrow's active citizen, fully informed about what environmental awareness means, what saving energy means and how we can bring this about ourselves, without expecting others to do it for us.
Therefore, I congratulate all our partners, the Cyprus Energy Office, the Environment and Sustainable Development Education Unit of the Pedagogical Institute of the Ministry of Education and all those who worked, but especially our teachers and the children who live it every day and talk about it and fully understand the opportunity that is given to them in their school to experience these environmental messages in practice".
The Minister then answered questions from journalists.
Asked what stage the installation of new air conditioners in schools is at, Michailidou noted: "We are moving forward in parallel with the air conditioners, without leaving behind this grand goal, which is to do what we have seen here in almost all the schools. Air conditioners are a necessity. It's a very small part of the whole action we're taking to facilitate classroom climate. I should mention that, as we have announced, within days, we will be ready to proceed with the installation, because a framework agreement is being prepared by the General Accounting Office, which will also allow us to act over a period of three years, since, as we have already stated, in this timeframe there will be an effort to install air conditioners in all schools."
In response to a comment that there are no air conditioners in this school either, the Minister said: "They will not be installed in this particular school because it will no longer be needed with the thermal comfort that we have achieved. With the measures that you have seen today and in the presentation that our partners have made, there will be no need for air conditioners to be installed in these schools, and that is the goal. But in all the others, where unfortunately we cannot have the same facilities, we are moving forward with air conditioners."
Asked what she had to say regarding the teachers' work stoppage at TEPAK and the stoppage planned for March 1, Michailidou said: "It is important to say that there are many chronic issues facing our Ministry. It goes without saying that during the course of the year we will have disagreements and these kinds of reactions. We have issued a statement today, we explain that on the budget issues the Ministry and the Government more broadly has been supportive of public universities. For all three universities we have increased their budgets for 2024 and, in any case, whatever the disagreements, the solution is not strike measures, whether they are for students or academic staff, you never solve problems that way, except at the dialogue table. If their submissions and the issues they want to raise are substantiated, we will gladly take them forward where they need to be taken forward in order to support our Higher Education. We have already announced that not only public Higher Education but Higher Education in general we want to upgrade it and we cannot upgrade it easily or if we have this kind of reactions. So we are here, ready for dialogue and discussion, so that we can make informed improvements to what needs improvement."
In response to a question regarding the protest planned by teachers on March 1, the Education Minister noted: "This relates to the service market programmes. The service purchase scheme has recently been abolished and based on the decision of the Council of Ministers, we are proceeding on the basis of our schedules. Within the next few weeks we will be ready to give them the proposal. Therefore, as I stated yesterday, we do not see the reason why this strike has already been announced. For us it is important to discuss our proposals first."
In a comment that they have said they are willing not to implement it if they are given satisfactory assurances, Michailidou noted: "This is not a proper way of dialogue. The right way is for them to see what proposals we have, to study them, if they disagree to come back, to discuss them, and in the end to take a decision that, if they are not satisfied, they will be free to react as they see fit. We are here, we are working feverishly so that the solutions and proposals that we propose are both legal and can last in the long run, so we should all respect the process that is underway and when we give them our scenarios and proposals, then we will be able to see how we proceed."
IP
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