Potential teachers complain over list system

Teachers on a waiting list to be given positions at state schools have started an online petition to not have the list replaced by another list of teachers awaiting to take exams to receive a permanent position.

Commenting to the Cyprus Mail about the government’s plans to scrap the original list, which some people have been on for over 20 years, the teachers said it is unfair to force some people already on the list to take exams when it was not the case in the past.

The group said they have also met MPs on the matter of scrapping the original waiting list.

According to what the group is demanding, the lists should remain as two separate entities, which is how they are currently, so that teachers that graduate under this new listing procedure can be on the waiting list, which requires exams, and teachers on the old waiting list can remain there.

Currently, the government appoints teachers in a 50-50 split when hiring taking people from the new list and the old one.

The group of teachers starting the petition say they want the procedure to remain this way, as some people have been waiting years to be given a place, and some have been out of university too long for them to be expected to sit exams again.

In their announcement about the petition, the teachers tell a story of the road many teachers in Cyprus followed, which included getting their education, being replacement teachers, then hourly wage earners, and then making it onto the list of appointed teachers, which the government now wants to replace with a new list of appointed teachers that have sat exams to take up their post.

“Don’t let the dream become a nightmare! You and your loved ones can help to not abolish the board of appointees in 2027 by signing the petition,” the group said.

The link to the petition is https://secure.avaaz.org/community_petitions/el/proedros_kupriakes_demokratias_boule_ton_antiproso_me_katargese_pinaka_dioristeon_1/?fpla