Salih Sarpten: Those Managing Education Have Forgotten It Is a Science

Appearing on Ulaş Barış’s program Gündem on Kıbrıs Postası TV, Sarpten emphasized the lack of infrastructure and teacher shortages in schools, which remain unresolved due to poor planning.

Sarpten argued that the decision to delay the start of the school year by a week was based on political motives, rather than pedagogical reasons, reflecting a disregard for education as a science. He expressed concern that Cypriot students are lagging behind their international peers in terms of skills. "The political influence on educational decisions is unacceptable," Sarpten remarked, adding that the country currently faces a shortage of 240 temporary teachers, a situation that reflects poor planning.

Highlighting the absence of long-term vision, Sarpten noted that there is no strategy in place for integrating critical subjects like media literacy and artificial intelligence into the curriculum. "We missed the train and now we are chasing after it. Instead of planning for the future, we are dealing with a system that is worse than what was done in the past," he said.

Sarpten also stated that education policies should reflect the vision of the society and individuals regarding the future, lamenting the lack of such thinking in the current system. He criticized the approach to population growth, arguing that there is no clear population policy guiding education, adding: "The current mentality seems to be, 'Let them grow however they turn out.'"

Sarpten's critique underscores a pressing need for science-based, long-term planning in education, free from political interference.