Cyprus-Forum.com

[DT.]

Did you go DT, and if so what happened?

I was at the Hilton, but for a different function otherwise I might have popped in.

didn't make it mate. Some other forum member insisted we attend a seminar about a bottle of Glenmorangie instead.

[CBBB]

Did you go DT, and if so what happened?

I was at the Hilton, but for a different function otherwise I might have popped in.

didn't make it mate. Some other forum member insisted we attend a seminar about a bottle of Glenmorangie instead.

My event involved dicussing the merits of Keo!

[zan]

English School row simmers on

English School parents taking worries to House

Wednesday meeting on “de-Hellenisation” fears ends with unanimous resolution

MPs to hear English School concerns

PARENTS GROUP CLAIM TEACHERS IMPOSING POLITICAL OPINIONS IN CLASSROOM

By Athena Karsera

The English School Parents and Alumni Initiative will next Tuesday take their concerns about the alleged de-Hellenisation of the School to the House Education Committee.

The group met with like-minded parents and alumni of the historic School on Wednesday to discuss their worries and vote in a resolution.

Also, this week teachers issued a letter to parents warning that the group’s actions - including the setting up of a website (www.englishschoolnews.com) - had had a negative impact on teaching.

The Teachers Association is expected to meet early next week to discuss developments after studying the resolution.

The parents claim a group of educators have “taken control of the Teachers Association” and are “imposing their own private and party opinions” as regards the 1974 invasion, preceding problems between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and the role of Eoka in ending British colonial rule. This, the group says, is taking place with the School’s tolerance.

The Initiative does not have the official backing of the School’s parents’ association.

Speaking to The Cyprus Weekly on the group’s behalf, Paris Spanos said Wednesday’s meeting - which the press was asked not to attend - had gone well.

“Over 350 people turned up and it was all very civilised,” he said. “Magda Nicholson who used to be Chairman of the Parents Association and on the School’s Administrative Committee and who is now the President of the Alumni Association, briefed all those attending about what has been happening”.

A discussion followed.

“There was no discord because the invitation was to like-minded people connected to the School. It was not a platform for debate on the issue”.

Participants also approved a resolution which will be presented to the School.

This criticised the Teachers Association for sending parents a letter containing “blackmailing message and veiled threats of strikes and a fall in education levels.”

Spanos also revealed that the group’s concerns were expected to be discussed at two School meetings to which parents have been invited in February.

“I do not think that these meetings have been called for this specific purpose but I cannot see how our concerns cannot be discussed then,” Spanos said.

The resolution said the School had always been multicultural and never had and or should have a bicommunal character. It also said that the School should remain Christian in accordance with the relative law that set it up.

The School must remain separate from politics and respect the national heritage of all its pupils while remaining liberal in its mentality without following any political dogma and always with respected for the opposite opinion, the document said.

The resolution also said that the School “must not be used to experiment rapprochement techniques between Greek and Turkish Cypriot or as an attempt to solve the Cyprus problem in miniature but must instead focus on the academic and social education of its pupils”.

The School could not deny that there was still a problem of invasion and occupation in Cyprus, it added.

Parents agreed to take “all necessary action” to ensure that the School focused on its role as an academic centre, remaining detached from politics, to end every effort by school staff or visitors to impose their political views on pupils, to stop limiting pupils’ free expression of their national or religious identity, to show proper respect to the national anthem and symbols of the Republic of Cyprus, to celebrate national holidays, ensure the history of Cyprus and religious education were taught in the way they have always been until recently, to ensure the public and other holidays recognised by the School remained in place and to respect the state and its institutions.