Ypsonas parents threaten action over school construction and prefab classrooms
Parents’ associations in Ypsonas have demanded written commitments on school upgrades and new facilities, warning of action if the education ministry does not respond by September 10.
Ypsonas, Cyprus. Parents’ associations representing public schools in Ypsonas have filed a formal complaint with the labour inspection department over construction works and conditions at schools, which they described as dangerous for children.
They said the education ministry must provide a positive response by September 10 or they would report the matter to the EU and pupils would abstain from the first two school periods on September 14.
Demands for school upgrades
The coordinating committee of parents’ associations said public education was “on the brink of collapse” and called for the strategic implementation of projects with clear deadlines.
It said 2,682 children were affected and that the associations had sent letters and attended meetings for three years. However, it said unsuitable and deteriorating prefabricated classrooms remained in school yards for use by a neighbouring school because of overcrowding.
The committee said the rapidly developing area required additional schools. It added that the only lyceum in the area was operating with 12 mobile classrooms.
Complaint to labour inspection department
In a letter dated September 4 to the labour inspection department, the committee referred to education ministry promises to upgrade schools but said the area did not need a “communication strategy to cover the problems”.
Following the letter, the committee said the education ministry promised a response on the building programme, which had been pending for months, and a visit to Ypsonas third public school to inspect the prefabricated classrooms.
Deadline and proposed action
As a gesture of good faith, the committee said it would give the ministry until September 10 to convert verbal assurances into written commitments with specific dates.
It requested commitments for the upgrading of the third nursery school and third primary school, as well as the construction of a fourth nursery school, a fourth primary school, a second gymnasium and a second lyceum in Ypsonas and the wider western Limassol area.
The committee also called for health and safety guarantees, suitability certificates and full fire safety for prefabricated classrooms until the new projects are 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.
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