THE SCHOOL bell at the Rizokarpasso Gymnasium in the north of the island rang out yesterday morning for the first time in 30 years as 11 secondary school pupils attended classes in their home village.
Students began registering for the new school year early yesterday morning and then proceeded to their classrooms for lessons in music, Greek, religion, French and Physical Education.
Two pupils registered for the first year of Gymnasium, five for second year and four for third year, while another four pupils are due to register.
Seven teachers crossed to the north to take the classes, in addition to a husband and wife team that will run the school and stay permanently in Rizokarpasso. Some of the other teachers will commute until they can find a place to live in the enclaved village.
A senior official from the Turkish Cypriot ‘Education Ministry’ also visited the school and wished the pupils well in their studies.
The children, who were given free schoolbags, will be using the 56 approved schoolbooks, out of the 72 submitted to the Turkish Cypriot authorities for approval.
They told reporters at the school that they were happy to be able to attend school close to their parents.
For the last 30 years the lack of a secondary school in the Karpass peninsula has forced Greek Cypriot enclaved families to either send their children to live with relatives in the government-controlled areas at the age of 12 or 13, or to move south entirely.
However unless the Rizokarpasso Lyceum re-opens, pupils may have to return south to complete the last few years of their schooling.
Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said yesterday there had been no problems with the reopening of the Gymnasium.
“The building is in a functional condition and today the Rizokarpasso high school reopened,” he said.
UNFICYP Chief of Civil Affairs Kannan Rajarathinam said this day “a happy day and belongs to all Cypriots. ”UNFICYP is happy that it has been of some assistance,” he said.
Rajarathinam, who went to Rizokarpaso to hand over the schoolbooks, said there were still some practicalities to he sorted out. “We hope that they will also be overcome like the other practicalities before that,” he said.
