WHEN crossings between the north and south of the island opened in 2003, the parents of many high-attaining Turkish Cypriot students raced to enroll their children at Nicosia’s renowned English School on the Greek Cypriot side. For three decades, the school, with its century-old reputation, high standards of education in English, and enviable sporting facilities, had not been available to young Turkish Cypriots.
Today, with the continued absence in the north of a school comparable to the south’s English School, several hundred Turkish Cypriot students still cross the UN-controlled Green Line each day to attend either the English School itself or one of the many other English language private schools on this side. But the flow may be stemmed a little when a new school, to be known as the English School of Kyrenia (ESK), opens its doors in September.
Irfan Nevzat, one of the directors of ESK, told the Sunday Mail that the new school will have more than a passing resemblance to its Nicosia namesake, even down to the choice of a lion for its school symbol. Indeed, Nevzat’s father was a student at the English School, while his grandfather was a boarding master there right up to the time when the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities were driven apart, first by ethnic strife, and then by invasion. A further connection is that the ESK’s secondary head David Charman was a teacher at the English School between 1969 and 1974.
“Our school is definitely inspired by the English School in Nicosia because it’s a renowned centre of learning on the island,” Nevzat said, but added that ESK would be looking more to international high standards than simply trying to create a carbon copy of his father’s and grandfather’s former school.
“Education is in our blood,” Nevzat said. “This is not an overnight thing. Building this school is a dream the family has had for a very long time.”
Indeed, the ESK is both a family dream and a family business. Nevzat said that almost all the funding for the school comes from the Nevzat family coffers, which have been filled over the years by the small media empire they preside over in north Nicosia. The Kibris Media Group is headed by Bilge Nevzat, who, as well as being Irfan’s mother, is also the sister of Asil Nadir, the once fabulously-rich head of Polypeck, a British-based company that shot from rags to riches in the 1980s, only to be disbanded by the City amid accusations of financial irregularities. Although Nadir now lives in self-imposed exile in the north, he is said to have no connection with the school project.
Nevertheless, Nevzat’s brother Levent, who manages the finances of the project, said finances during the growth stage will not be plagued by the cash-flow woes common to other privately funded educational establishments in the north.
“We have a ten year plan, and we do not expect to break even for the first nine to ten years,” he said.
As builders work to complete construction of the 11,000-square metre school and its surrounding 15 donums of grounds on the Kyrenia-Bellapais road, only the pre-school part of operations is currently up and running. But if that is anything to go by, it bodes well for the rest of the school’s future. And although the pre-school section, which was opened last September, is temporarily located in central Kyrenia, it is already clear that modes of operation and education at the ESK are significantly different from those of other ‘state’ and privately run educational establishments in the north.
For a start, the headmistress of the pre-school and junior school sections Judith Green, is a British teacher of 30 years experience. Green spent her last three years in the UK employed by the British education authorities troubleshooting failing schools in inner city Birmingham.
Likewise, headmaster of the secondary school David Charman has had a long and distinguished education career, ranging from teaching in Cyprus during the late sixties to being headmaster of Sexey School in Somerset from 1989 to ’95. Most recently, Charman was head of the Sultan School in Oman, where he is said to have doubled the school population during his time there.
The school has also employed the services of Dr Jenifer Longhurst, former headmistress of Surbiton High, one of the UK’s top independent schools. Although not teaching at the school, Longhurst has been invaluable in advising the Nevzat family on how the school should be built and run.
Nevzat insists the employment of these educationalists is no temporary measure aimed at luring students in. Rather, the employment of British staff is a policy that will continue as long as the school is open. Bilingual teaching assistants may be employed to help students struggling with the switch to English-medium education, but the main staff will be British, recruited from the independent school system.
The school building will house 50 classrooms, 29 of them standard, 12 International Baccalaureate (IB) classrooms, and nine for specialist subjects such as science, art, music and language. It will also contain a sports hall and swimming pool, while outdoors there will be tennis courts and football pitches. Nevzat also hopes to add cricket and rugby pitches.
Incidentally, the land on which the school is being built used to belong to the family, before it was bequeathed by Nevzat’s grandfather to a religious foundation, or vakif, in the 1930s.
“When my parents were looking for a suitable piece of land they found this place, and only later found out its history. The vakif then leased it back to us for the school. There’s something poetic there,” he said.
“The advantage is that we have started fresh, with enough space to grow, and with the infrastructure intact,” he added.
Educationally, the school will seek to elicit the highest possible grades from their students with the aim of placing them, upon graduation, in universities off the island. However Nevzat insisted, “We are not just interested in grades, but in the characters of those who come out. We want them to be responsible adults; people who can take their place in the world.” Sport, art, music and drama also occupy a place high on the agenda, he said.
”With my three sons studying at the school, I have as much of a vested interest as any parent. I had a great education, and I want the same for my sons.”
