Overcrowding is forcing Paphos schools to share facilities and new schools need to be built urgently, district president of the teacher’s union (Oelmek) Giorgos Yiallouris said on Saturday.

He cited the example of Emba lyceum which is forced to host classes from the technical school, while the Kykkos lyceum shares premises with the Nikolaidio gymnasium.

The Apostolos Pavlos lyceum, Agios Theodoros gymnasium, and the Geroskipou gymnasium are also all overcrowded, he told the Cyprus News Agency.

“A programme must be implemented to not only upgrade existing school buildings but also build new schools,” he said.

Yiallouris said the Nikolaidio gymnasium will move into the premises of an elementary school, but not before 2023, but even if they build a new gymnasium with the capacity of 300 students, it would not help with the overpopulation issue of Apostolos Pavlos and Agios Theodoros.

On the issue of exams and how regularly they ought to be held, Yiallouris said that they had asked for the exams to be cancelled due to the pandemic.

“At the moment, exams are taking place with many students absent and we still do not know when the second round of exams will be scheduled for,” he said.

Regarding the ‘test to stay’ scheme to be implemented from Monday, Yiallouris said that Oelmek considers it a “dangerous measure”.

“A student who became sick on the fourth or fifth day will likely infect students who are unvaccinated,” he said.