PARENTS of pupils at Highgate School are scrambling to find alternatives before September due to uncertainty over its continuing operation.
One concerned parent of a pupil at the school told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that it is “pathetic” that such a richly multicultural school should face the risk of disappearing “due to complaints from neighbours” or uncertainty over permits. Nevertheless, she has felt obliged to look for an alternative school for her daughter come September.
“My first-choice alternative had one place available, and my second and third choices told me that they were full for September, especially due to demand from Highgate School parents”, she said, adding: “If Highgate goes, I don’t think that all the kids will get places in other schools.”
Another parent, who has been active in the campaign to support the school, believes that as many as “fifty per cent of parents have not looked elsewhere. All the alternative schools are full, so apart from the teachers who might lose their jobs, where are the kids supposed to go?”
Another aspect is that a number of the school’s teachers have been given redundancy notices as a precaution, with the understanding that these will be rescinded as soon as developments allow. However, since teaching contracts may not be confirmed until the summer, there is a danger that some teachers will already have made other plans and be unavailable to return.
The search for a satisfactory resolution has not been helped by a number of cancelled council meetings – the latest scheduled for March 31 and April 28 – which were due to consider the school’s applications for licence renewals and planning permission.
The apparent unwillingness of the municipal council to consider a workable solution to the problem has led some the school’s supporters to allege a stitch-up between some municipal councillors and politically-connected local residents who oppose the school’s continuing operation.
There are conflicting views within Nicosia Municipality regarding its ability to act. Municipality Engineer Phedonas Nicolaou told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that the municipality’s “hands are tied” by the cancellation of the Nicosia district zoning plan, while a school supporter familiar with the planning permission process said that a municipal councillor had told her that “the school is not affected by the zoning plan, and they are able to process those applications which are not affected.”
The school “is slowly being killed” by Nicosia Municipal Council bureaucracy, School Board Chairman Nicos Peristianis told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.
He said that Education Minister Andreas Demetriou has confirmed to Nicosia Municipality in writing that it has approved Highgate Secondary School’s move to St.Joseph’s, and the municipality has confirmed to him that it has received the Minister’s letter.
In his view, there is no political conspiracy to shut down the school. Rather, all the elements are there for the issue to be resolved positively, but the problem is that “we are dealing with a chaotic, impersonal bureaucracy. The councillors, who come from a wide range of political parties, are each taking a view in isolation. Unless they come together in a proper, structured meeting, an informed decision cannot be made.”
Peristianis believes that this lack of a timely decision “is slowly killing the school”. Nevertheless, despite all the problems, he is optimistic. “Even if 200 or just 100 pupils remain, the school will open in September”, he said, adding: “Once it is confirmed officially that what we are saying is true, then we will be able to ask the parents to come back. One hopes that this mess can be sorted out in a way that will allow the work of the school to continue.”
In August 2008 the school was given an oral refusal to its application for a licence for its secondary school, which was followed several months later by the decision in writing, delivered in November, on the grounds that the school was not in keeping with the residential character of the neighbourhood.
Meanwhile, the renewal of the primary school’s licence has also been delayed.
The school subsequently re-applied for a temporary licence in January 2009, in order to allow it to continue to operate in its current location until its alternative solution could be implemented. The municipal council has still not made a decision on this.
Opponents of the school’s operation in Ayios Andreas have lobbied the municipal council repeatedly with complaints about student numbers, noise and traffic congestion, and have accused the school of breaking various laws and local regulations.
Thanks to the school’s expansion since it was set up as a kindergarten in 1991, the present buildings and facilities in Ayios Andreas are now inadequate for the school’s purposes.
The result is that there is now a real possibility that the school will open for the next academic year in September on a severely restricted basis, with significant numbers of kids left in the lurch.
