Children at schools across Cyprus will during the forthcoming academic year receive lessons on fire safety from retired firefighters, Education Minister Athena Michaelidou said on Tuesday.

Speaking after a meeting with fire brigade chief Nikos Longinos and other stakeholders, she said her ministry “considers the issue of safety of children and staff in schools, and especially that of fire safety, to be important”.

She then added that the planned fire safety lessons had “been planned long before” the wildfire which tore through the Limassol district last month and killed two people.

“Holding the meeting today confirms the importance of this type of cooperation. We want our schools to have this outreach, to rely on experts, to have people who know these issues go into the schools, speak to children of all ages, from preschool age, because that is where we build life skills,” she said.

She added, “that is why we have set up a plan, together, where from September, in a few weeks, we will see people going into schools to speak about these issues with children and school staff”.

She then went on to say that in the coming months and years, the government will “monitor” and “upgrade” the lessons.

This, she said, will be done “so that in this very important issue, due to climate change, due to the particularities that this place is experiencing, the tragic events that we have every year with the fires, we can give children, the future citizens of this place, the opportunity to be properly informed and to act correctly”.

Longinos also spoke after the meeting and stressed the importance of being informed about fire safety.

“We see today that there is a climate crisis, so we should start from the new generation, from the children, to create a new culture regarding the prevention of and response to any incidences of fire,” he said.

He explained that the lessons would be provided by retired firefighters “with 30 or 40 years of experience in the field”, and that as such, “they will be able to give a more vivid picture to the children”.

“The current events which are happening not only in Cyprus, but around the world, require us to go into the schools and be able to help the children I general,” he said, before thanking Michaelidou “for giving us the opportunity to go into the schools and inform the children in the most appropriate way”.

Retired firefighters’ association chairman Panikos Tsouderos also briefly spoke after the meeting, thanking both Michaelidou and Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis for their support for the programme and retired firefighters’ participation in it.

“We are happy, because although we are retired, we will be able to offer what we know … We are ready, we have volunteers in all the districts and as soon as the programme is drawn up,” we will start.