It’s getting hot in here...

For those with even a brief acquaintance with Cyprus will know that the weather can turn from cold to hot within the blink of a camel’s eye. And once it gets hot it stays that way until the climate cools for a few months towards the start or end of the year.

Knowing these general meteorological rules, it could be argued that the critical need for air conditioning is from June to September, give or take a few days here and there for extreme weather. If you have children of school age, you are a witness to having them go stir crazy while schools shut during the hot summer months. But depending on their age, during the exam period kids stop going to class from May.

Nevertheless, teachers are demanding climate-controlled classrooms are essential to ensure kids stay awake in class and reach their academic potential. Regardless of their tarnished public image, teachers seemingly do care about their young charges. They are going out on a limb to fight for what they truly believe in — air-conditioned classes for all.

Our educational crusaders took to class this week armed with thermometers to measure stifling temperatures at school from the early morning.

Educators say that classrooms need air condition units as temperatures can reach 30 degrees Celsius as early as 8am. Ministry officials are concerned that having air condition units in classrooms pose a health hazard as students could fall ill in a freezing environment (this is code for “it costs too much”). Taken out of context, this appears a noble effort by teachers to safeguard child welfare in the pursuit of excellence – not a concept that Cypriot teachers are noted for.

What the state teaching profession is accustomed to is self-preservation and the issue of over-heated classrooms is but another stick by which to batter or bruise a minister who has been on their case.

Education Minister Costas Hambiaouris sought to shake up schools in a bid to rid them of failed teachers to make them more productive. He has also said some harsh words since the recent death of a 10-year-old boy on school grounds.

Like most self-satisfied public-sector unions in Cyprus, they don’t want to hear home truths about their lack of productivity and ability to do the job they are well paid for. State teachers want to make an issue of warm classrooms for the odd week that schools are actually open during the summer, but I don’t see any of them going to bat for smaller class sizes, improving the curriculum to produce more rounded citizens or addressing the fact that Cyprus comes bottom in international tests for science, maths and languages. We can’t blame all that on sweat-box classrooms in June.

There is a good argument to have air-conditioned schools, especially during the stressful exam period. A US study suggests that in years with hotter weather pupils are likely to perform less well in exams. There is a “significant” link between higher temperatures and lower school achievement, say economic researchers. The study, from academics at Harvard, the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and Georgia State University, claims to have produced the first clear evidence showing that when temperatures go up, school performance goes down.

Colder days did not seem to damage achievement - but the negative impact began to be measurable as temperatures rose above 21C. The reduction in learning accelerated once temperatures rose above 32C and even more so above 38C. But schools in Cyprus are closed during the hottest part of the day and for most of the summer. Parents would like to see cooler schools, but are teachers taking a stand for entirely selfish reasons?