Parents threaten action over unsuitable Ypsonas schools

The parents' associations of Ypsonas public schools made a formal complaint to the labour inspection department over construction works at schools and on Monday threatened action in collaboration with schools in Curium over a situation they described as dangerous for the children. The education ministry has until September 10 to respond positively, otherwise the situation will be reported to the EU and the children will abstain from the first two school periods on September 14, the parents said. The coordinating committee of associations said 'public education was on the brink of collapse' and demanded the 'strategic implementation of works with clear deadlines'. It said 2,682 children were affected and that for three years the associations had been sending letters and attending meetings but still 'there are unsuitable prefabricated and deteriorating classrooms in the school yard for use by a neighbouring school due to overcrowding'. The committee pointed out that the area was rapidly developing and needed additional schools. At the moment, it said, the only lyceum in the area was operating with 12 mobile classrooms. In its letter to the labour inspection department dated September 4, the coordinating committee mentioned education ministry promises for upgrading of schools, but pointed out that the area did not need a 'communication strategy to cover the problems'. Following the letter, the education ministry 'promised an answer to the building programme pending for months, and to visit the Ypsonas third public school to check the prefab classrooms'. As a 'gesture of good faith', the coordinating committee said it would give an extension to the ministry until September 10 to 'turn these verbal assurances into written commitments with specific dates' for the upgrading of the third nursery school and third primary school, and the construction of a fourth nursery school, a fourth primary school, a second gymnasium and a second lyceum in Ypsonas and the broader area of western Limassol. The committee also demanded health and safety guarantees, as well as suitability certificates and full fire safety for prefab classrooms until the new projects were completed. 'We do not accept to send our children [to school] in conditions that the state authorities acknowledge to be problematic for years,' it said.