Top ministers to probe English School dispute

By Andrea Sophocleous

A SPECIALLY appointed Ministerial Committee will be set up to look into the background to the bitter dispute at the English School.

The Council of Ministers announced yesterday that it would set up a committee made up of Education Minister Lykourgos Kappas, Finance Minister Christodoulos Christodoulou and Labour and Social Insurance Minister Andreas Moushiouttas to investigate allegations of favouritism and mismanagement at the school.

Antonis Antoniou, president of the English School Staff Association (ESSA), told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that his only wish was for “the ministerial committee to make a quick decision, because we cannot let this crisis continue.”

“Life at the school is very difficult at the moment,” he explained. “Lots of things that had to be done by the end of May have not been looked at, such as timetables for next year and appointments.”

Antoniou said that a demand by the Parents Association and the English School Old Boys and Girls Association (Esobga) that controversial headmaster Thomas Thomas resign at the end of this academic year in August was “a good way out of the deadlock”.

The parents and graduates suggested that an acting headmaster take over until an official headmaster could be appointed for September 1999.

This was unacceptable to the school board, which the teachers perceive as backing Thomas.

Teachers have been locked in a standoff with the headmaster over allegations of favouritism in the promotion of a female member of staff and alleged “autocratic” style of management.

Negotiations between the school board, Essa, the Parents Association and Esobga ended in a deadlock on Thursday, and Antoniou said there was “no point” in the negotiations continuing now that a ministerial committee would look into the issue.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.