Parents of more than 6,000 pupils in Western Limassol municipality have threatened to keep their children home from school on Friday unless the local school authority resolves ongoing staffing and administrative problems.

The Western Limassol school authority has closed its doors since Monday protesting lack of support from the ministry, leaving families without essential support. Gymnasiums, Lyceums and technical schools officially start school on Friday.

The ministry of education on Wednesday described the school authority’s move as “blackmail” against the ministry and at the expense of pupils and their families, arguing that the decision was based on unfounded claims.

The school authority is facing reduced numbers of supervisors, technical staff, and a lack of a health supervisor, making operation of 25 schools extremely difficult.

The authority is responsible for the daily running of all local schools including kindergartens, handling non-teaching staffing, paperwork and helping families, making sure all students can actually go to school.

President of the authority Herodotos Neophytou told CyBC radio that the situation is “unsustainable” and is placing increasing pressure on the education system.

“For many years, our facilities have been temporary. The education minister referred us to the general director, and we held a meeting with five caretakers,” Neophytou said.

“Since then, the number of staff has not increased, even though the workload has grown significantly. We asked for extra personnel, but we still face a heavy burden.”

He said kindergartens are not formally recognised as school units.

“Education Minister Athena Michaelidou called our action vindictive. The reply we received was to send an untrained caretaker, whom we now have to train ourselves,” he added, criticising the government’s response.

Communication issues have worsened the problem.

“Caretakers are not responding to calls or scheduling appointments. Offices had to be closed when meetings produced no results. We cannot wait any longer,” Neophytou said.

The ministry of education confirmed it is aware of the staffing issues and has already made arrangements to strengthen the board with additional curator hours, but warned that full replacement of resigned staff was limited due to general understaffing.

According to the education ministry, the school authority was entitled to five employees under criteria applied to all school boards and was staffed with exactly five until August 30.

Following the resignation of one employee, and even before the authority’s letter of August 25 requesting replacement, the ministry made immediate arrangements to provide extra curator hours by assigning a curator who splits duties between two services.

The ministry stressed that a full replacement was not possible due to nationwide shortages, which had already been explained in detail to school boards and directors in a circular dated August 8.

The authority, the ministry noted, nonetheless took the unjustified decision to suspend operations without warning.

The ministry also rejected claims about unsafe school buildings as baseless, saying no expert studies support them. The ministry further underlined that the Western Limassol school authority’s budget had been increased by 14 per cent in 2025, with maintenance funds nearly doubled from €132,000 to €250,000.

The ministry of education urges the authority to immediately resume work and engage in dialogue to resolve issues for the benefit of students.

It added that it expects the Western Limassol school authority to revoke its decision at once, warning that such actions only cause serious harm to education and pupils. The ministry said any requests or problems can be effectively managed through consultation and discussions, a framework in which it remains fully engaged. It invited the authority back to talks aimed at both immediate and medium-term solutions, with priority given to ensuring schools open smoothly.

“The parents have been with us since Monday when our decision was announced, they have been calling us and congratulating us,” said Neophytou.

“We are fed up with promises and words, we tried arguments and dialogue but we have not found a solution.”