English School board replaced

By Charlie Charalambous

THE ENGLISH School’s unpopular headmaster, Thomas Thomas, could soon be out of a job following the government’s decision to replace the entire school board.

The removal of the old board, which had backed the headmaster to the hilt, could spell the end for Thomas.

The government announced yesterday that the Council of Ministers had appointed a new board during a meeting on Wednesday.

The decision follows a ministerial committee probe into allegations of favouritism by Thomas in the appointment of a female teacher to a senior position.

Staff, backed by the parents, have called on Thomas to resign immediately to avoid further disruption when the new term begins in September.

They also accused the board of whitewashing an internal investigation into the allegations against Thomas.

This view was conveyed to the ministerial committee, which took its recommendations to the Cabinet for further action on Wednesday.

Teachers have welcomed the move as a moral victory, as they believe many of the new members support their views about how the fee-paying school should be run.

“We believe this is a board that we can do business with, and we think Thomas’ position is very shaky,” a staff source told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.

The government announcement about the new board gave no indication of the reasons behind the decision.

Thomas is currently on vacation in the UK.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.