Our View: Unions protect mediocrity, not students
Education Minister Athena Michaelidou was upbeat about the new school year when she spoke to journalists on Tuesday. Ninety-eight per cent of school staffing needs had been met, the installation of air conditioning units in classroom was going according to plan, while projects aimed at improving school safety were in progress. Innovations in the curriculum were also ready for the new school year.
The biggest problem facing public education, however – the evaluation of teachers – is still looming and Michaelidou is scheduled to meet representatives of teaching unions early next week to try and agree a way forward. The unions did not approve the proposal prepared by the ministry and had urged deputies not to approve it. The president of the House education committee, Pavlos Mylonas, sided with the unions, which represent thousands of votes, and urged the two sides to try to resolve their differences through dialogue, although earlier discussions led nowhere.
The plan was for an agreement to be reached and the bill forwarded for House approval in September. Unless the minister does exactly what the union bosses are demanding, there will be no agreement, because the objective of the unions has always been to prevent a reliable and objective evaluation system. They have opposed its introduction for decades, because this would limit the power of the unions to protect the mediocre and ensure their career advancement regardless. A reliable evaluation system would end the dependence of good teachers on the unions as they would be rewarded for their work, rather than for years of service or union connections.
This is why Mylonas’ proposal for more discussions plays straight into the hands of the union bosses. There had been a dialogue, but it ended when it became obvious that rather than make a few constructive proposals, the union bosses wanted to dictate what type of system would be in place. When Mylonas was working in the private sector, did the unions decide how he and his colleagues were evaluated? Was that not the responsibility of his line manager? And did he have a say on how his employer would evaluate him?
Only in union-ruled Cyprus do politicians believe that workers have the right to decide how their work should be evaluated. This, in the full knowledge that the main objective of public schoolteachers is maximum pay for minimum effort, values that are reflected in the steadily declining standards of public education. Union power has created a public education system that serves the poor teachers rather than the interests of the students, but our politicians are happy to defend this unacceptable situation.
Even sadder is the unions have managed to secure the support of parents’ associations which, for some inexplicable reason, always side with the teachers. Michaelidou diplomatically pointed this out on Tuesday, when she said concessions had to be made by the unions. The issue was not about union rights and demands, Michaelidou quite rightly pointed put on Tuesday, “but it is substantive, educational, pedagogical and affects all of society.” This was why “we want a change to the evaluation system,” she added. How can deputies and parents not see this and side with the self-serving union bosses?