SEVERAL hundred former students of The English School gathered at the school’s entrance on Thursday evening to express their concern about its future which they believed was being threatened by relentless political interference. The demonstration was part of a campaign titled ‘Save Our School’ that was recently launched by a group of former students.
In the manifesto it has distributed via e-mail, the group blames “high-handed party politics” for declining academic standards, the frequent change of head teacher, a decrease in the number of applicants for places and the failure of the school to attract top teachers from other private schools despite offering better pay and benefits. It also castigated the “scandalous” practice of school teachers giving private tutoring to their students, as well as the Board’s “unparalleled, unproductive confrontation with the parents”.
The campaigners did not name who were behind the ‘party politics’ causing so much harm to the English School, but it was blatantly obvious they were referring to AKEL and the Christofias government, which believes the state has a responsibility to keep a tight control of everything under its authority. Despite being a fee-paying school that follows the British curriculum, the school is state-owned and thus under the control of the government of the day, which then appoints the members of the board.
The English School has been turned into an ideological battleground since the arrival of Turkish Cypriots in 2003, with Greek Cypriot parents opposing the attempts of the board and a group of teachers to turn it into a multi-cultural educational establishment. Parents were furious the Greek flag was no longer flying at the school, that national symbols had been removed from classrooms and Greek national holidays had stopped being celebrated.
This led to constant confrontations between the parents and the AKEL-dominated board. The Parents’ Association is now controlled by opponents of the multi-cultural experiment, who are also trying to interfere in the running of the school and to impose their own political beliefs. Who has the right to decide the values and ideals of the English School – the parents, the government, former students, the board or the powerful teaching unions which forced the resignation of the head teacher?
Former students have every right to want to save the school, but it is simplistic for them to think that by eliminating AKEL influence everything would return to normal. The teaching unions that put the interests of their members above those of the students would not go away and neither would the parents who believe they should be running the school. A capable head teacher, with a proven track record, a clear academic vision and the support of the board is the only hope of turning the school around, but the last person to attempt this was forced to resign.
