The decision to run an alternative education pilot programme for students with severe socio-educational challenges from premises of the Pancyprian Gymnasium became a subject of debate and consternation on Friday.
In brief, the secondary education teacher’s union Oelmek, has taken the position that the chosen location was unsuitable to the purpose, and would cause the incoming students to feel marginalised.
Oelmek added that the space had been required for the storage of musical instruments.
Responding to this claim on CyBC’s morning radio, Education Minister Athena Michaelidou said that matter involved a mere handful of students – five to be precise – and that it was not a matter of space but of unfounded fears.
She claimed the move had prompted suggestions that the special programme’s students would cause incidents of aggression and even pose a health risk, saying she had read such complaints and had sought to assuage these concerns.
“These are not delinquents they are children, and all are under the age of 14,” the minister said.
The teens would be using a different location with a separate entrance and the operation of the gymnasium would be unaffected, Michaelidou added.
The minister also called for all to refrain from “early and unsubstantiated statements and announcements.”
“This is the fourth or fifth, possibly the final, chance for these children to be integrated into society and be kept in school,” Michaelidou said, adding that the pilot programme would be assessed and expanded to other schools.
This first site had been chosen in consultation with the school Board, for a trial implementation whose ultimate goal is the participants’ reintegration.
“Premature and unsubstantiated statements and announcements only succeed in stigmatising the children who will participate in alternative education and unnecessarily upset parents and children of Pancyprian high school,” a ministry announcement said.
It added that the percentage of students who face serious behavioural disorders which hinder learning, socialisation and functioning, inside and outside school, is estimated at one to two per cent.
Because the general school system cannot support them, these children end up truant with all the risks entailed, during a critical stage of their adolescence, the statement added.
“Ensuring the right to education is a duty of the state and an inalienable right of all children,” the ministry continued, adding that children who exhibit severe emotional disorders often do so as a result of trauma and need individual support at school and family level.
“The ministry and its supporting services will continue to provide all possible assistance to all children, in order to maximise their potential, offering alternative ways of education and safeguarding their rights,” the announcement concluded.
