Three children have been denied access to education and personalised assistance to overcome their emotional problems and reintegrate into neighbourhood schools because of the commotion caused by parents and teachers alike, demanding they be taken elsewhere.

“We decided that in a climate so intensely negative, both due to the stance of the parents and unfortunately the teachers as well, the specific programme cannot function,” head of educational psychology at the education ministry Dr Ernestina Sismani Papacosta told the Cyprus Mail on Tuesday.

The three children are part of an education ministry pilot programme to help them be able to rejoin their classmates and do well in exams.

A suitable room was being refurbished at the Pancyprian Gymnasium in Nicosia, separated from the main school, where the three children would receive all the help they needed to move forward.

However, the uproar caused before they even set foot in their temporary classroom was so intense that the education ministry decided to seek an alternative structure.

Papacosta said the programme’s aim was to prevent children with serious emotional problems from leaving school by giving them a second chance.

“There are prerequisites for such a programme to work and the first is to operate in a supportive environment, which we do not have at the moment,” she said.

The programme was the result of a long-standing proposal and was finally launched this year on a pilot basis.

Papacosta said children with emotional problems often exhibit provocative behaviour and need personalised education and treatment.

These are children that the education system, despite provisions and support, has failed to incorporate, Papacosta added.

“I am deeply saddened about the misinformation that we tried to isolate students or even tried to create prisons or wall them up,” Papacosta said, adding that this was a result of intolerance and a fear of diversity.

The pilot programme “has not operated at all” she said.

“Before we managed to prepare the area, before works were completed, it was decided that the place is inappropriate. The children haven’t been there,” she said.

There are no more than 40 students across Cyprus that would be eligible to take part in such a programme, while the pilot was to be offered to just three.

“These children need a second chance. Everyone is entitled to a second chance and the education ministry must support all its students,” Papacosta said.

Eligible children, aged 12 to 18, would follow a four-month programme and return to their own school, unless an assessment indicates they are not ready.

The children will be prepared for their school exams and at the same time will receive personalised therapy.

“They are children who have been traumatised, are depressed, are in dysfunctional families and unfortunately do not have the luxury of going for therapy, so the therapy is carried out on a systematic basis, every day, for each student,” Papacosta said.

She stressed that the programme will definitely be implemented. “Now we must find another place that will be more supportive and where the children will be protected,” she added.

She said there has been confusion and misinformation about these children who may show disruptive behaviour.

“This does not mean that they are dangerous individuals,” Papacosta said.

The reactions were over the top, she added. “The reactions deeply saddened me. There was an intensely negative stance by a large portion of the parents of the school. But I am more saddened by the intensely negative stance of the school’s teachers.”

The reason was intolerance and fear of diversity, Papacosta said, adding that this was evident at a meeting she attended with the parents and teachers.

Later they changed their tune, accusing the education ministry of trying to create “prisons” for these children.

“It is inconceivable that anyone in the department of educational psychology would want to create a place that would exclude children. On the contrary, it is a place that reintegrates them.”

Papacosta said that if the environment was supportive, there could even have been cooperation with the school so the children in the programme would be even better prepared to return to their own schools.

“They could have possibly been incorporated into music, art and physical education programmes at the Pancyprian Gymnasium. Unfortunately, now this cannot happen.”

Papacosta said positive psychology programmes cultivating tolerance and empathy start in preschool.

“We are an educational system full of diversity. Society is full of diversity. It is something we should celebrate because we stand to gain from diversity, not lose.”