Teachers’ unions will be taking their final decisions on the new evaluation system on Thursday, as the debate on the new bill reforming the way teachers are assessed has come to a close, Education Minister Athena Michaelidou said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the House education committee, Michaelidou called on the MPs to start discussing the clauses of the bill one by one, after a year of dissension.

“The new evaluation plan is not an audit mechanism, but an instrument to support, strengthen and acknowledge our teachers,” Michaelidou said.

She pointed out that through the reform the evaluations would move forward from the current system that has been around for half a century.

Changes brought about through dialogue have been incorporated in the proposed legislation, the minister said, adding however that “there will never be absolute agreement”.

The three unions, Poed, Oelmek and Oltek, had received the amendments late on Monday.

Poed president Maria Vasiliou said the hundred-member council would be convening on Thursday to discuss the changes and take final decisions.

The union’s general secretary Charis Charalambous said there were convergences as well as disagreements.

Oelmek president Demetris Taliadoros reiterated his organisation’s negative stance, explaining that the changes were “not substantive”.

He referred to “paradoxes” in the bill and said the education ministry “does not understand what is going on at schools”.

Oltek president Panayiotis Chrysanthou said the union would be discussing the issue on Thursday and refrained from making any further statement.

Law Office representative Maria Kyprianou said the changes sent by the education ministry had been approved by the legal service, with reservations about one clause that could be amended during the discussions to ensue at the House education committee.

President of the committee Pavlos Mylonas said the MPs would wait till they had the response of the unions before proceeding.

“I believe we will have a result very soon,” he added.

Mylonas pointed out that the phenomenon with MPs expected to grab the hot potato should stop and the reform should go ahead.

MPs remain divided on the bill and decisions will depend on the stance of the teachers’ unions.