Increased school chaperones for children with disabilities

The council of ministers on Wednesday approved a series of proposals tabled by the ministry of education, including self-evaluation for schools and increased school chaperones.

Speaking after the cabinet meeting, Education Minister Athena Michaelidou said that school self-evaluations are part of a unified school improvement plan.

Each school will draw up its improvement plan based on its needs, with its management team using specific tools so that at the end of the year they can draw up specific data on whether the school has achieved its goals or not, she explained.

Another proposal that was approved by the cabinet was an increase in school chaperones for children with disabilities.

The minister explained that so far district school boards were responsible for approving requests for school chaperones and according to her the criteria must be re-examined along with the selection process altogether.

“We will formally announce the beginning of the dialogue on special education, with the aim of the pedagogical readjustment of all procedures governing a child’s education from the moment of their diagnosis until they graduate secondary school,” she said, stressing that this needs to be done because the legislation on special education is outdated and the procedures quite anachronistic.

Michaelidou also mentioned that the cabinet approved the pilot implementation of German language teaching in state secondary schools.

Based on the evaluation of this application and the success of multilingualism, which is one of the ministry’s objectives, the extension of the measure to other schools will also be considered in the next school year, she said.

Asked to comment on the level of readiness for the new school year, the education minister said that she is satisfied with the actions taken by the ministry for the smoothest possible start of the year.

Nevertheless, she added the chronic issues plaguing the education system have already been identified.

She said that her ministry will be in a position to make recommendations for amending and modernising the legislation and other issues surrounding education, so that the next school year can begin with new standards.