Filenews 18 May 2022
Starting September on a pilot basis the transfer of primary school students to their schools, which will be picked up by bus from house to house, announced Wednesday the Minister of Transport, Communications and Works, Yiannis Karousos, who was invited by the Parliamentary Committee on Education, for the evaluation of timetables and curricula in primary, secondary general and secondary technical and vocational education.
According to the competent Minister, the students will be picked up from house to house, with an escort who will coordinate this process, and they will be transported by bus to the school, while he added that upon completion of the lessons, the students will be transported back to their homes in the same way.
Informing the members of the Education Committee of the House, he said that the program will be piloted for six months, and noted that schools from urban, tourist, remote, border or mountain areas have been selected, in order to record any problems that arise at the pilot stage.
As Mr. Karousos pointed out, the aim is for the program to be implemented in all primary schools of Cyprus from September 2023, with the beginning of the new school year.
Asked about the cost of the program and whether families will be burdened with any amount, in his statements on the sidelines of the session, the Minister of Transport said that the government's goal is not to burden families, noting that if there will be a burden it will be the minimum, that is, in the same way that is now done with the student routes of Gymnasiums – Lyceums, which is €10 per month.
However, he added that during the pilot phase it is possible that there will be no cost and the transfer will be free of charge.
He expressed the appreciation that the program will solve many problems in the daily lives of parents and other citizens.
In September the study on rolling schedules
In relation to the shift of working hours in education, as well as the issue of the traffic problem, the competent Minister informed the Education Committee about the preparation of a study in relation to rolling schedules, which will be ready by the end of September.
He explained that the Ministry, in the context of the study on the Nicosia Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP), requested that a study be carried out first in relation to the rolling hours and specifically if the hours of the Public Service, education or some Private Organizations are changed or shifted, that these changes will affect the traffic.
"The study will be ready by the end of September and when it is ready we will be able to put it before all the social partners, so that the final decisions can be taken," he said.
Mr. Karousos said that his Ministry believes that the traffic will be resolved if the working hours are shifted, noting that a prerequisite for shifting the hours in education should be the change of timetables in the Public Service.
He added that they will await the results of the study, for there to be a documentation and then to start the discussion, with a view to resolving the traffic.
He clarified that the results will help significantly so as not to shift the problem from one hour to another.
Moreover, Mr. Karousos mentioned that an important contribution to the improvement of the traffic is the installation of smart systems at the traffic lights, where, as he said, now the management of traffic in Nicosia and Limassol will be done in this way and there will be significant savings on the route.
CNA
