EVERY few months, The English School manages to get in the news for all the wrong reasons. It did it again this week with a letter written by four members of the Parents Teachers Association, in which they accused the board chairperson of being economical with the truth, appeared in the media. The chairperson subsequently notified one of the signatories of the letter that she was terminating the services he had been offering the school (free of charge) because of his allegedly defamatory comments.
This had been preceded by public rows between members of the current board, and the nasty battle for control of the parents association, eventually won by the nationalist faction, which scrapped the board’s decision to promote the bi-communal character of school. Muslim religious holidays stopped being observed while the celebration of Greek national holidays was re-introduced. This battle raged in the media and led to the creation of a rival parents’ association that wanted to preserve the bi-communal character of the school.
Then we had the teachers’ union of the school deciding that they wanted to get rid of the previous head-teacher, because she was too demanding. After an extended period of rowing, the board, chaired at the time by a pro-union, AKEL apparatchik, got rid of the head-teacher in the middle of the school year. The current head-teacher, meanwhile, is leaving this summer, supposedly because of disagreements over his pay. This high turnover of heads cannot ensure the continuity and stability that are essential for the smooth operation of the school, but it appears that the interests and welfare of the children is the last thing on the mind of the irresponsible adults who run the institution.
What a shame that the oldest private school in Cyprus has been turned into a battleground for rival factions of parents, political placemen and teachers, each with their own agenda and petty interests. It was indicative of this malaise that the current board decided this year that the children of board members, like those of teachers, would be accepted into the school even if they failed the entry exam. Such a self-serving decision, undermining any notion of meritocracy and fair play, is certainly not what you would expect from a school that is he supposedly striving to promote academic excellence.
In defence of this decision, the chairperson, said that the entrance exam privilege had existed for children of board members until 1999 but had been abolished, as if this were justification for its re-introduction. It was abolished because previous board members rightly thought it was an unfair arrangement and put the good name of the school above their narrow personal interest. The current board had even considered giving the children of its members a discount of fees, as had also been the case before 1999, but the idea reportedly could not command a majority.
The English School has become another example of the irreparable damage done by the direct interference of the political parties and their accomplices, the unions. Once considered the island’s top private school, to which everyone wanted to send their children, it has gradually been reduced to a semi-governmental type of organisation that is run badly by the self-serving apparatchiks of the political parties and primarily serves the needs and interests of its employees – the teachers – just like the Ports Authority and the EAC.
And just like most party/union-run state organisations, the school is in dire financial straits, with 90 per cent of its revenue going on wages, leaving no money for much-needed improvements on facilities. Many classes are housed in prefab building and this does not look like it will change soon. Now, it faces the added problem of being owed hundreds of thousands of euros in unpaid fees that parents cannot afford to pay. Some members of the board are now expressing genuine concerns about its viability.
Instead of dealing with these issues, which threaten the very future of the school, the party apparatchiks on the board continue to bicker over trivialities, happy to get rid of yet another head-teacher – presumably they have the support of the teachers’ union – and showing no concern over the instability and uncertainty this fosters. None of the other private schools are in such a mess, because they are privately-owned and neither the political parties nor the teaching unions have a say in their running. The English School, in contrast, is a trust and the guardian of the trust is the government, which has consistently placed the school under the control of the destructive alliance of parties and unions that leave everything they touch in ruins.
