Ypsonas students will not attend class over dilapidated buildings

Limassol students will not attend classes over escalating frustration about dilapidated buildings and overcrowding, the parents’ association announced on Tuesday.

“On May 17, the students of the six Ypsonas schools will be absent from their lessons in the first period,” the announcement said.

The schools in question are the 2^nd and 3rd kindergartens and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd primary schools, as well as the gymnasium.

The situation with problematic schools in Ypsonas has been ongoing for close to ten years with MPs having likened them to barns in the past.

“From November until today, we have exhausted all opportunities for dialogue with the minister of education, the technical services and the school board for implementing all the promises we received to solve chronic problems,” the parents’ association said in its latest statement.

The deadline for a promised start to the works expired on April 26, the parents’ association said and therefore they proceeded with the first of the six pre-determined actions, that is, students boycotting classes.

Parents said they are determined to end the unequal treatment of their children.

“We stand against the indifference of those in charge and claim what [should be] taken for granted for our children,” the announcement concluded.

The decision to take action came following a meeting on Friday with Minister of Education Athena Michaelidou over strategic plans to erect four new schools, including a secondary school, and expand one primary school and the existing high school by building ten additional rooms by end of May.