Teachers walked out of every public school in the north on Wednesday as protests continue against the ruling coalition’s handling of education in light of a retracted attempt to legalise the wearing of hijabs by schoolchildren last month.

The protest was led by the Irsen Kucuk middle school in northern Nicosia, where Cyprus Turkish secondary education teachers’ union (Ktoeos) leader Selma Eylem read out a prepared statement in which she decried the state of education in the north.

She spoke of having to teach more than 40 children at a time in portacabins, about how many children do not speak Turkish, and about the long hours teachers spend marking work and doing work outside of their normal teaching duties due to staff shortages elsewhere in schools.

Additionally, she criticised how “our books and curricula have been changed”, but that despite this, teachers “strive to provide pupils with an egalitarian, free, scientific education and to guide them in line with Ataturk’s principles”.

She went on to say that teachers’ rights have been “degraded”, and that teachers will continue to fight for “contemporary, secular, scientific education”.

“We will never compromise on scientific and secular education, on Ataturk’s principles, for our country, for our environment, for our society, for our children, and for our future. We will continue to fight for bright and beautiful days,” she said.

The protest comes two days after Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar had demanded that legal action be taken against teachers who “disturbed our peace” during earlier protests, saying that he would meet with Turkish Cypriot police chief Kasim Kuni and chief public prosecutor Sarper Altincik and “request that legal steps be taken”.

Teachers had staged a protest outside the Turkish embassy in northern Nicosia last Tuesday, with trade unions pointing their fingers at the Turkish embassy as what they believed to be the source of the amendment which briefly legalised the wearing of hijabs in schools in the north.

The ruling coalition had withdrawn the amendment on Tuesday morning, but teachers were nonetheless keen to show their displeasure at the amendment and their view that the embassy had played a role, with some even believing it was put down to deliberately sow division in Turkish Cypriot society.

At the protest, Selma Eylem called on ambassador Ali Murat Basceri to “go home”, with footage of her speech now having gone viral in Turkey, where political tensions are heightened for separate reasons.

 She had said Basceri “is continuing this imposition of political Islam”, and that there was no room for compromise over the matter.

The north’s ‘government’ had initially legalised the wearing of hijabs in schools midway through March, but faced a fierce backlash from teachers, the majority of whom are staunchly secular.

Teachers had refused to let planned school exams go ahead, and at the same time refused to allow children wearing hijabs, and other religious garments including a chador – a full-body cloak which covers the body from head to toe – to enter schools.

The crisis then continued on Thursday, with a girl being sent to northern Nicosia’s Irsen Kucuk middle school wearing a hijab and being turned away. What ensued was a standoff between the girl’s parents and schoolteachers, with ‘education ministry’ undersecretary Yusuf Inaniroglu then arriving on the scene to mediate.

Opposition-supporting media outlets including Yeniduzen and Bugun Kibris reported that Inaniroglu attempted to “pressure” the school into allowing the hijab-wearing child to enter, with photographs emerging of a heated exchange inside headmistress Gulden Ogcum’s office.

Ogcum then fainted and was treated by paramedics, but backup was offered by teachers from other schools who travelled to the Irsen Kucuk middle school to ensure that the child would not enter while wearing a hijab.

Ibrahim Damar, the imam of the mosque in the northern Nicosia suburb of Mandres, then weighed in on the matter, describing teachers as “infidels” and saying he would refuse to lead a funeral service for “anyone who opposes headscarves”.

“I am saying it clearly; those who oppose the headscarf are infidels. The funeral prayer of an infidel cannot be performed,” he said.

‘Education minister’ Nazim Cavusoglu then said the ‘government’ would have another look at the issue after Eid al-Fitr, which began on Sunday, but not before Cyprus Turkish teachers’ trade union (Ktos) leader Burak Mavis said that both he and Inaniroglu should resign and be tried for breaching the peace as a result of their actions.