Teachers’ unions Oelmek, Oeltek and Poed on Monday called for an immediate meeting with President Nikos Christodoulides over the implementation of an agreement for permanent teaching positions.

The three unions met to discuss the issue and will reconvene on Friday to assess the situation, with all measures at their disposal open, including a strike.

They are asking for the implementation of the agreement reached in November 2023, by which more permanent teaching positions would open, which would also reduce the number of non-permanent staff.

Speaking after the meeting, Poed chairwoman Myria Vasiliou said the failure to implement the agreement has led to understaffed schools.

Vasiliou said it was unlikely that the agreement would be fully implemented for the upcoming academic year.

“You understand that this for us a red line,” she said.

The unions will meet on Friday to decide their next steps and hope that Christodoulides will see them before then.

Oelmek chairman Demetris Taliadoros said the unions were notified on Monday by the education ministry that it would not submit a complementary budget for the additional permanent positions for 2025-2026.

Taliadoros said Christodoulides should be “a guarantor” of this agreement.

“We are at the end of the appointing system. There are two lists and they must be properly managed so that no one is wronged,” he added.

Vasiliou said the unions were open to taking measures.

“We are not trying to convince the government that our positions are right because the government has already agreed. At this point, the agreement is being breached,” she added.

Taliadoros said that every summer the unions are faced with the same delays in staffing.

“They had promised to prepare a complementary budget. Then they said they wouldn’t. They should have included these positions in the 2025 budget,” he added.

Oeltek chairman Panayiotis Lysandrou said the teachers were under a lot of stress, which was then transmitted to public education.

“When 40 per cent of colleagues every year don’t know where they will be sent, to which school, their teaching work is undermined,” he said.

Lysandrou added that “the problem will become worse until a final solution is found, which is to create the soonest possible permanent positions so that a large portion of non-permanent colleagues become permanent […] and staying at the same school for a few years will contribute to better quality education.”

Poed general secretary Charis Charalambous clarified that these were not new positions, but non-permanent staff being made permanent.