The situation that prevails at the 1st Technical School in Nicosia is chaotic, after the unprecedented spontaneous protest in which the students of the School proceeded on Friday morning, expressing with banners and slogans, their opposition, in relation to the actions of the Director of the school, requesting his resignation and the intervention of the Minister of Education, Prodromos Prodromos, who requested a report of facts.
The dissatisfaction of the students was also evident from the slogans written on the banners they were holding, such as: “Principals do not curse students”, “The Principal shuts us up with expulsions”, “Principal stop expelling students”. In fact, parents of students also participated in the protest, who condemned the behavior of the Director, while according to information, there were complaints from parents about inappropriate behavior and bullying by the Principal towards the students.
Of course, the issue that has arisen has two sides, that of the position expressed by the students and parents and that invoked by the Principal and the school's teaching association. The events that have taken place for weeks do not honor anyone, after all, this is why a report of events was requested from the Directorate of Secondary Technical Education.
The climate in the school unit seems to have been disturbed for a long time, since in an attempt by the School Management to limit the students who exhibited deviant behavior during school time, it resulted in students being expelled from the school in question. According to what was publicly reported by the Director of the school, Mr. Dino Tselepo, about two weeks ago, students broke into his office and he was attacked by the father of a student, while victims of the students and their behavior seem to have fallen and other professors, with one professor submitting her resignation. The students, due to the seriousness of the incident, were referred to disciplinary proceedings, where the teachers' union imposed penalties and they were expelled, with students and parents not accepting the penalties.
For its part, the union of Technical Education teachers, OLTEK, sets up a wall of protection against the Director of the School and the correctness of his handling of the incidents that occurred, but also the decisions taken by the teachers' association. As he told REPORTER,the president of OLTEK, Panagiotis Lysandrou, said that “it was about students who displayed delinquent behavior and did not let the teachers do their lesson. In one case a teacher, because of the situation, wanted to resign and when the Principal visited the room where the teacher was teaching to enforce the class, he broke up with the students. After this incident, the reported incident took place, where students and parents stormed his office and were referred to disciplinary and then to the teachers' union, which decided that two of the students should change school environment and the others were punished (abortions). In fact, the Director of the School who was involved was absent from the relevant session of the teachers' association, where the decisions were made”.
According to Mr. Lysandros, the management of the school implemented the regulations of the Public Secondary School. “The club's decisions were unanimous and that says a lot. It must be clear that the teachers' associations do not punish the children but apply the pedagogical measures for the good of the children. Also, the parents should understand the same”, he said.
Nevertheless, the president of OLTEC said that it is logical that any complaints and protests should be investigated, but from the investigation, which he proceeded with the guild has not identified anything objectionable to the School Management. It is noted that, in order to show the unanimity of their decisions and their support for the Director of the School, the teachers sent a relevant letter to the Minister of Education.
What will end the rift that has been created between students and the Directorate of the 1st Technical School, is something that will be decided after the report of facts that the Minister of Education will receive from the Directorate of Secondary Technical Education.
