"We don't see any reason to make such reports before we even have the meeting", says Athina Michailidou
Next week and before the predetermined date, the meeting with OELMEK will be held to inform it, said the Minister of Education Dr. Athena Michailidou in Paphos, noting that "we are available at all times to all educational organizations, but also to all our partners, to inform about the issues, but mainly to listen".
In her statements after the end of the National Memorial of the Hero of EOKA 1955-1959 George Papaverkios at the Holy Church of Agios Kalandion, in Pano Arodes in Paphos, the Minister of Education mentioned that they received a letter last week about a meeting, which anyway is predetermined. However, he continued, "due to other obligations we have to change it and we are also bringing the meeting earlier so OELMEK will be with us earlier".
Mrs. Michailidou noted that for 11 months, almost a year, she has been in very frequent communication with all the educational organizations, characterizing the cooperation with them as very important, as she has stated so many times.
The issues they raise are not new, therefore, he said, "we also want this meeting to inform them where we have arrived and how we have progressed".
He also pointed out that the report of the President of OELMEK to take measures "does not concern us at the moment and we have not yet informed them to judge at what stage our cooperation with the organization is", therefore he added, "we see no reason to we make these kinds of reports before we even have the meeting."
The Ministry of the Interior was referring to the statements of the President of OELMEK Dimitris Taliadorou yesterday at the KYPE, who, in a related observation that any measures are not excluded, answered in the affirmative, saying that for these issues there is a decision of the Pan-Cypriot Conference, on December 21, 2023, which has been authorized the Central Board of Directors to proceed with dynamic measures.
Asked by Dr. Michaelidou if the Ministry of Education has any solutions for the issues raised by OELMEK, Mrs. Michaelidou stated that "for us, these are not pending issues, they are the issues we have had on the table for some time, we had already given the answers us on four of the five issues and on the fifth issue we will inform them at our upcoming meeting and together, as we always do, we will co-decide how to move forward", he added. Therefore, he continued, for us there is nothing new in the agenda set by OELMEK, but what there is, as he said, is continuous and regular information, which is very important.
In the letter, OELMEK referred to urgent issues, such as the end-of-year exams, duration, subject matter, state Training Institutes, how they will be staffed, etc., staffing of full-day schools where the request is to convert them into contracts . who are appointed by the Education Service Committee.
Asked about the date of the meeting, the Minister of Education said that her meeting with OELMEK will be next week, so that they don't let her go too far.
As he mentioned, it is not a question of measures but a question of timely information, adding that "we are available at all times to all educational organizations, but also to all our partners to inform about the issues, but above all to listen".
He added, finally, that they have already proven this year that "we listen, discuss and proceed consensually, therefore any other reports find us completely out of this context", he concluded.