Ministry probes faith school claims
THE government has launched an investigation into claims that students at a controversial faith-based state school near Lefkoşa were being put under “religious pressure” — allegations denied by the head of the school’s parent-teacher association.
The move came after reports emerged on Tuesday that children staying at dormitories within the Hala Sultan Divinity College, close to the village of Haspolat, were being “woken up at night and forced to pray” by “vocational teachers” on secondment from Turkey.
According to a story in Cyprus Today’s sister newspaper Kıbrıs, students were offered “expensive gifts” if they could recite the Koran, while
some of the teachers allegedly told pupils they would “turn to stone” if they celebrated the New Year.
National Education and Culture Ministry inspectors on Thursday visited the college for initial meetings with its administrators.
More contacts, including with teachers and pupils, were taking place yesterday and are expected to continue today.
Ministry undersecretary Rauf Ataöv said the probe could not be completed within a single day, and added: “Inspectors will decide on the route and the method of the investigation and the ministry will not intervene, in order to allow an independent investigation to be carried out.”
Other claims, included in a letter sent by other teachers at the school to the National Education Ministry and obtained by Kıbrıs, were that the vocational teachers were “interfering” with plans to mark May 19, Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day; that a female student was subjected to “insults” because of the way she was dressed; that boys and girls “hanging about together” were “criticised”; and that schoolchildren were “forced to say that they were prepared to die as martyrs in order to go to heaven”.
The letter, dated December 29, said the vocational teachers, along with the deputy head teachers, were “exerting pressure both on the teachers and on the students”.
The matter was discussed in depth on Tuesday, following publication of the story, by education officials and Deputy Prime Minister and Acting Education Minister Serdar Denktaş.
Cyprus Turkish Secondary School Teachers’ Union (Ktoeös) leader Selma Eylem said she had discussed the issue with the ministry’s undersecretary and that she would be keeping a “close eye” on developments.
Hikmet Kaynarca, head of the Hala Sultan parent-teacher association, said the claims were false and that those making them were “marginal” teachers.
“Most of [our] teachers are happy with their school . . . Attempts to use mind games to bring this school — which usually hits the headlines with the quality of its education — on to the agenda are unacceptable,” he said.
Mr Kaynarca said the school had won the “trust and appreciation of the people of the TRNC” since opening in 2012, and said its education was based on “national and moral values” and aimed to “raise generations who are academically successful”.
He said there were currently 1,025 students at the college and that it received “three times as many applications as there are places available”.
Children at the selective state school are taught the Koran and Arabic, alongside other lessons such as Turkish and Turkish Cypriot history, English and “Atatürkism”.
Commenting on the claims, social services expert Barış Başel said children were “not able to easily understand abstract concepts such as religion, love, heaven and God”.
Psychologist Ayla Kahraman said controversy surrounding the school could “negatively affect” the confidence of youngsters studying there.