Turkish Cypriot teachers’ trade union Ktoeos reacted with fury on Tuesday after a high school teacher was physically assaulted by a final-year pupil.
The pupil reportedly had special educational needs, and the union said teachers at the school had written to the north’s ‘education ministry’ about him after previous outbursts in which he had assaulted other pupils and teachers, and that nothing had been done.
The school had even asked inspectors from the ‘ministry’ to visit the school to assess the situation as recently as last Thursday, but Ktoeos said the ‘ministry’ had not responded to the request.
As such, it is expected that the teacher who was assaulted will sue the ‘ministry’ for negligence.
Ktoeos leader Selma Eylem told newspaper Yeni Duzen the assault at the school in Trikomo is one of a number of such cases, and said the issue was being exacerbated by a growing number of children attending the schools.
“This incident has happened before, and the education ministry has persistently failed to take any measures. The ministry reduced the number of guidance counsellor positions. It was supposed to appoint nine but only appointed three,” she began.
She added that with more students and fewer staff, incidences of bullying have also grown in frequency in Turkish Cypriot schools.
“We have been speaking about this for months and the ministry and the government are happy to just sit on and watch. They only care about who is parliament speaker,” she said.
