Education Minister Athena Michaelidou pledged on Monday to push forward with reforms that would support teachers and improve learning opportunities for children.

Teachers, she said, were the “backbone” of education.

In a written statement on World Teachers’ Day issued later in the day, Michaelidou said measures and protests by teachers could not precede the assessment of the revised proposals put forward by the ministry regarding the appointment system.

“This is not an administrative or trade union matter, but an issue that concerns who enters the class and subsequently the future of our children,” she said.

The teachers’ organisations, she added, have been invited to a meeting on Tuesday to receive the updated proposal.

In a Facebook post earlier to mark World Teachers’ Day, Michaelidou said the government’s effort was continuing “with dialogue and specific decisions that support the school and its people”.

Michaelidou said “the future of our country is formed in classrooms” and thanked the teaching community – from nursery schools to universities – for their contribution in helping the younger generation grow.

The government, she added, acknowledged that the quality of education was linked to support towards teachers, who “should have more resources and every child should have better opportunities for learning and development”.

This, Michaelidou pointed out, was the direction in which the government’s reforms were moving.

The minister also recognised the “demands challenges” and called on teachers to support the joint effort.

“Public education needs to transform our collective responsibility into active participation in efforts for its modernisation,” Michaelidou said, adding that “education changes through its people” and the collective obligation was to “empower every educator to enhance the prospects for every child”.