IT MAY be summer break for the students, but controversy continues to follow parents, teachers and management at the English School with more accusations of mismanagement and threatening behaviour doing the rounds.
An ANT1 news report focused on a letter sent by a group of English School parents, who protested that the school’s standards have dropped. According to reports, six parents signed the letter, claiming to represent 80 per cent of all parents at the school of 1,200 students.
The parents alleged that standards have dropped to the point that children now have to take extra afternoon lessons to cover the gaps. They accused the board of governors of financial mismanagement, referring specifically to money spent to send teachers on rapprochement seminars in Ireland. The school has become a “test case for rapprochement”, they argued.
EDEK deputy Georgios Varnavas yesterday called for the House Education Committee, of which he is a member, to convene immediately to discuss the allegations and put an end to the “unacceptable behaviour” of some within the school. Varnavas accused some teachers and members of the board of using the school to promote their own political beliefs.
“The fact that some on the Board of Governors and a number of teachers continue their unacceptable activity, trying to pass through the school their own partisan beliefs, even threatening the new headmistress, creates an intolerable and unacceptable situation within the school.”
He argued that the same teachers and board members, who allegedly belong to the same political party “have made it their goal to use the school as a test case, trying to force through their reconciliatory messages by fire and brimstone, altering the role and objectives that the school must respect and fulfil, based on its charter”. This was unacceptable, he added.
The education committee member repeated allegations made by the parents of financial mismanagement, “as well as wasting money on trips abroad for teachers to attend rapprochement programmes”.
English School chairman of the board of governors, Kyriacos Vasiliou, yesterday questioned whether a group of six parents could possibly be considered representative of the entire school.
“I absolutely deny allegations that the headmistress was threatened. Mr Varnavas should give us names. Nobody from the board or school has threatened her. The only people who threaten the school are those outside the school,” he said.
The multicultural School in Nicosia has had €341,000 in state funding frozen by the House Finance Committee since last December. While AKEL and EDEK deputies were in favour of releasing the funds before the summer recess, DIKO and EVROKO were firmly against while DISY did not give a clear position, ensuring that the budget remained locked over the summer.
House Finance Committee Chairman and DIKO Vice-President Nicolas Papadopoulos has cited alleged problems with the school’s management, and wasting taxpayers’ money with “pointless trips abroad by teachers” as some of the problems troubling the House.
Asked to comment on financial mismanagement, Vasiliou said: “I don’t know what they’re talking about.” On the reconciliation seminars abroad, he was equally flummoxed.
“That was the work of the previous board. The last time it happened was in 2007. And they say that it was too expensive but the teachers stayed at the university campus in Ireland to keep costs down,” he said.
Other contentious issues facing the school board are the designation of holidays for the school’s multicultural pupils. The board withdrew its initial decision to close the school on November 15, when the breakaway state in the north celebrates its unilateral declaration of independence after strong reaction from all political parties. The management had wanted to avoid tension and friction among Greek and Turkish Cypriot students on the day but eventually agreed to try a different tack.
However with Turkish Cypriots making up around 13 per cent of the school’s population, the Board unanimously voted in favour this year of including the Muslim holy days of Ramazam Bayram (Eid ul Fitr) and Kurban Bayram (Eid al Adha) as holidays in the school calendar. A decision which has met with fierce resistance among some parents and politicians.
