TL crisis sends pupils back into state sector

TWENTY per cent more children than last year were enrolled in TRNC state schools when the new term began on Monday.

The sharp increase was mainly due to a rise in the number of families coming to live in the country and the devalued Turkish lira making private education unaffordable for many parents, said Education and Culture Minister Cemal Özyiğit.

Speaking at a press conference prior to the start of the new school year, Mr Özyiğit pledged that problems such as a lack of schools and teachers, along with ongoing building work in classrooms, would soon be resolved.

“The present government did not draw up the budget for this year but largely inherited it,” he said, highlighting that 70 per cent of the money was set aside to pay salaries and for “investments”, 7.5 per cent for procurement of supplies and only 4.5 per cent earmarked for school equipment and repairs.

He said alteration and repair works at many schools had already been completed and shortages of teachers at some would resolved by the filling of vacant posts within days.

Looking ahead to the new school year, Mr Özyiğit underlined the need for state policy and planning on education and said their main target was to “cultivate generations who were sensitive to man and environment”. On the issue of religious lessons, he issued a reminder that under revised regulations they were compulsory in primary schools but optional in secondary schools, where pupils could choose to take lessons in a different subject instead.

Teaching unions staged their own press conference to set out problems dogging the sector. Secondary School Teachers’ Union (Ktoeös) head Selma Eylem said the TL crisis had led to an “incredible” number of children being transferred out of private schools to state institutions, and shortfalls in facilities and teacher numbers meant there would be “great difficulties”.

She stressed the need for a new secondary school to be built in Girne, high schools in Lefkoşa and Gazimağusa, and a new building in İskele so that the college and high schools could be separated.

Burak Maviş, education secretary of the primary teachers’ union Ktös, said there was a need for three more primary schools in Gazimağusa, two in Girne and one each in Lefkoşa and the Karpaz, while 52 existing schools were in need of work.