“The mockery of OELMEK by the Ministry of Education can no longer be tolerated,” he notes OELMEK in an announcement
New severity – an unprecedented personal attack against the Minister of Education, Athina Michaelidou, is launched by OELMEK in a letter to the Minister with a series of complaints, on the occasion of the response that she herself sent to the Teachers' Organization on the issue of the Evaluation Plan. “We are not going to tolerate this effort that you are making through your letter, as well as through your public statements, which is the transfer of your own responsibilities for the dysfunctional dialogue on the evaluation system, elsewhere. You have been doing this on many issues recently, in order to justify the unjustified.” These were some of what OELMEK stated and published by paideia-news, in a statement in which it “shoots” the Minister of Education, Athina Michaelidou, in the face.
The letter follows in its entirety. Minister of Education, Sports and Youth Dr. Athena Michaelidou Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth Nicosia Subject: Ineffectiveness of the Ministry of Education in resolving serious issues in Secondary Education Dear Minister, On the occasion ofyour letter to OELMEK on the subject of “New Teacher Evaluation System” and dated November 22, 2024, our Organization emphasizes the following:
1). Unfortunately, the above letter is yet another proof of the tendency you have been showing all this time, that is, to present a fictitious or virtual reality, which does not reflect what is really happening. Along the way, this virtual reality is undermined by the data itself.
You did the same with the issue of school staffing, where you stated at the end of August that the schools were fully staffed, while appointments were still being made at the end of November. The same happened with the Comprehensive Programs, where you spoke of updating, modernization, and reducing the curriculum, while the result you presented in no way confirms the promises. The same applies to the security guards in the High Schools, where you stated to the Parliament in September that they had been appointed, which at the end of November has still not happened. You do the same thing constantly on most issues, in an endless effort to embellish reality.
We would say that your above practice is not surprising, since as a political figure you are trying to defend your “project” and cover up your own weaknesses and/or mistakes.
While we can understand your intentions, we will not tolerate this effort that you are making through your letter, as well as through your public statements, which is the shifting of your own responsibilities for the dysfunctional dialogue on the evaluation system, elsewhere. You have been doing this on many issues recently, to justify the unjustified. The Inspectors are to blame for the Detailed Programs, the School Boards for the air conditioners and security guards. For the issue of evaluation, OELMEK.
You even dare to characterize the attitude of our Organization as unproductive. You especially should not invoke productivity, not only on the issue of evaluation, but also on a number of other issues that we will list below.
But let's start with the issue of evaluation:
How is it possible to talk about an unproductive attitude of OELMEK, when the proposals you submit are full of shortcomings, ambiguities, vagueness and are not analyzed in detail at any point?
How can there be a productive dialogue when we set out in writing our positions on Stage A', along with a series of questions, in our letter dated 18/10/24, and receive in response a new text on 25/10/24 for the said stage, to which there is absolutely no reference in our letter and there is no answer to the questions we submitted to you?
How can there be a productive dialogue when, while the dialogue on Stage A' has not been completed, which has essentially not even begun, you send us draft texts for the next stages?
How can there be a productive dialogue when your proposals are not accompanied by an economic study for teaching/administrative time, while you know that other attempts in the past have failed for this very reason? How can there be a productive dialogue when you submit proposals that do not ensure the implementation of a meritocratic evaluation system (e.g. composition of a second-instance body for examining objections)?
How can there be a productive dialogue when you reinstate unacceptable provisions that were rejected in the past?
Our Organization, seeing the above counterproductive process, for which you are solely responsible, simply did the obvious. It requested a comprehensive and complete proposal from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, with all the details, without gaps and ambiguities, including the economic study, in order to position itself responsibly and seriously.Our Organization's decision is based not only on its experience from the counterproductive and salami-laced “dialogue” you are having on the issue of evaluation, but also from the “dialogue” we have been having with you for many months on various issues, for which we have never received specific and substantive answers, resulting in a series of serious issues in Secondary Education remaining open and unresolved.
The specific issues will be mentioned below. However, before we proceed to these, we would like to dwell on a reference you made in your letter, which shows great disrespect towards all Educational Organizations, since you talk about alleged messages that you receive from the base of teachers of all levels. You know very well who represents the base of teachers and you also know the consequences that your predecessors had who did not respect and/or insulted teachers and the Organizations that represent them.
We now come to the issues of Secondary Education, in which you have demonstrated the same ineffective and counterproductive attitude all these past months.
2). Initially, we will refer to the Alternative Education and Reintegration School. An issue in which, in addition to inefficiency, you have shown similar offensive behavior.such as the one above for evaluation, which you seem to employ when faced with failed policies or decisions of yours. Specifically, the announcement of your Ministry regarding the Alternative Study and Reintegration School, which you issued on 14/10/2024, caused anger and indignation in the educational world and beyond, given that the sole responsibility for the unpleasant developments was yours and not the teachers, parents and students, as you mentioned in the announcement. In addition, your attitude on this specific issue was anything but productive, since you violated every rule for introducing changes/innovations in education, you never informed those involved about the content of the program, as you had promised, and you did not inform those involved about the choice of venue.
3), Regarding the extremely important issue of student delinquency, while you committed to a series of measures, essentially nothing was done, since even useful institutions (e.g. OAP) have been degraded during your time:
a) With a series of misguided actions by your Ministry, you led to a dead end the implementation of the Alternative Program for students with “extremely delinquent behavior”, which was a proposal by OELMEK.
b) The issue of installing cameras in School Groups has not progressed, even in the few schools you committed to.
c) While you publicly announced the installation of security guards (guards) in all Gymnasiums, in dozens of schools yet and
have not been placedd) You agreed on the need to upgrade the operation of the OAP, so that it operates more promptly, from the beginning of September, and more effectively, without complex bureaucratic procedures. Today, its operation cannot be described as immediate.
4). You have not kept the commitment you made at the meeting held on 26/9/2024, where you stated before all Educational Organizations that you would send a proposal on the burning issue of the Teacher Appointment System in early October and, specifically, “next week”. You stated in Parliament that you would bring a proposal in early 2025.
5). You have left the implementation of our Agreement to increase permanent positions in limbo,in order to gradually reduce the huge number of contract employees, whose percentage this school year reaches a large percentage of 20%! Your Government has not included any provision in the 2025 budget for an increase in permanent positions with the aim of gradually reducing the percentage of contract employees to the agreed 7%. All this, while you know that without the increase in permanent organic positions, the new appointment system will essentially lead to a dead end, in addition to the other problems that must be solved immediately.
6). In many meetings, since assuming your duties until today, you have stated that you will bring a proposal/bill to resolve the problems that exist in the Private Schools Legislation. While you have acknowledged that your Ministry is unable to exercise any control over Private Schools, you have not taken any action to strengthen the competent Service of your Ministry, You have not prepared any organizational chart to strengthen the staffing of the Service that is mandated to exercise the controls provided for by the Private Schools Legislation. At the meeting of the Secretariat of OELMEK with the President of the Republic, on May 20, 2024, you were asked by the President by June 1, 2024 to submit a relevant proposal to him. While they have Six months have passed and there has been no progress on the issue. It seems that you have abandoned the issue in favor of private interests. Essentially, the only description that fits your attitude is mockery.
7), On the issue of State Training Institutes (STIs), it is clear that you have refused to engage in dialogue on their pedagogical upgrading, as well as to implement educational policies that you implemented at other levels of education. It is clear that you are biased against Secondary Education. You refused to discuss with us the upgrading of the KIE and today more than 100 departments cannot function due to a lack of teachers. Is this what you mean by the pedagogical upgrading of the KIE?
8). With regard to the secondments of Managerial Executives, an issue on which you stated that you agree with the position of our Organization, not only did you not take any substantive steps, but you proceeded to new secondments of Managerial Executives, which you refused to revoke.The result of this policy of yours was that 20% of the School Units were administratively understaffed.
9). You unilaterally and arbitrarily changed the Timetable of the transitional classes for children with an immigrant background, without any dialogue or even information and without scientific documentation.
10), You have never submitted a specific and comprehensive timetable for the installation of air conditioning in the School Units, as requested by all the bodies.
11). Finally, you repeatedly avoid the substantive discussion of those who have been cut off from Secondary Education in the period 2013-2019.
Others could be added to the above issues The patience and tolerance of our Organization has run out. The mockery of OELMEK by your Ministry cannot be tolerated indefinitely, Our Organization, as a last-ditch effort to move the above issues forward, will give you credit until January 10, 2025, to get specific and not general answers. In case the mockery and the same unproductive attitude of the Ministry of Education in the above continues, our reaction will be strong.
Regarding the issue of evaluation, we will await the overall and comprehensive proposal of the Ministry of Education, which should include all its aspects/stages, along with the financial study for teaching/administrative time, so that we can position ourselves comprehensively, as we always do, based on what we mentioned in our relevant letter dated November 20, 2024.
