Government to enshrine e-learning education in law

The government will be moving to enshrine distance learning education in law, Education Minister Prodromos Prodromou said Monday.

In just a matter of weeks, Cyprus successfully established a framework for education to continue through distance learning, Prodromou said, as the island’s coronavirus outbreak saw all educational centres bolt their doors.

Speaking to reporters during a visit at the Archangelos middle school, where samples were being collected to be sent for testing for the virus, Prodromou said progress is always difficult, and it will be “hard for everyone to accept long distance learning, but even so, we mustn’t stop, rather we must utilize this potential that has been achieved by teachers and students.”

Regarding the ongoing round of tests being carried out at schools, and which aim to establish a safe path for the return of students to classrooms on Thursday, Prodromou said that samples were being collected on Monday from a Limassol middle and primary school, while Tuesday and Thursday will see samples collected from schools in all districts, including Larnaca and Paphos.

He added that tests will be repeated in Nicosia and Limassol schools, “as requested by epidemiologists so that they can have at their disposal as much information as possible prior to the resumption of schools.”

Alarms went off on Saturday, when all four new coronavirus cases that were announced that day emerged from the round of tests targeting students and school staff.

Two were students at the Aradippou lyceum, one was a member of staff at a Paphos nursery, and one was a non-teaching employee at a lyceum in the Nicosia district.

Prodromou said Monday that all educational centres were cases were identified have been disinfected, while tests are being repeated so that the schools are considered safe beyond a doubt.

“It is better to identify cases than to not have tests conducted,” Prodromou noted.