Turkish language and culture schools in the UK ‘in danger’
THE future of Turkish language and culture schools in the UK is under threat, the head of the Council of Turkish Cypriot Associations (CTCA) in Britain, Fahri Zihni, has warned.
Mr Zihni issued the warning during a CTCA workshop held last Sunday with its member schools.
“We are at a time of great danger for our schools and the education of our children,” Mr Zihni said.
“Despite the heroic efforts of many volunteer staff and teachers, who give their time and energy to this noble cause freely, we are now facing widespread loss of locally based schools.
“It is time to ring our alarm bells and, as CTCA, ask our parents, teachers, the business community, the TRNC and Evkaf [the TRNC-based charitable foundation] to act quickly to help us protect our schools from extinction.”
Mr Zihni said that “tens of thousands of children” have attended the “supplementary Turkish culture and language schools” over the years.
This has helped them improve their command of the Turkish language, while also learning the “music, dance, poetry and the arts and crafts of their Turkish cultural heritage”, he added, helping to “instil a sense of identity, belonging, and love for their countries of heritage: North Cyprus and Türkiye [Turkey].”
Mr Zihni noted that the education provided by the schools has helped students attain success in their Turkish GCSEs and A Levels, which in turn has helped “many pupils gain places at colleges and universities”.
“Above all, our Turkish schools have created a sense of confidence and cohesion for the Turkish-speaking community of the UK,” Mr Zihni continued.
“Sadly, there has already been a year-on-year reduction of schools for some years and the Covid pandemic has made the situation much worse.
“When the face-to-face teaching stopped due to lockdown, schools tried their utmost to keep education going, albeit through a virtual experience, which cannot match physical experience.
“However, it has been difficult for children and parents to kick-start face-to-face work at a real school after such a long time of absence.”
Mr Zihni said that another challenge is the sharp rise in rents for school premises, meaning that “many schools have run their budget reserves down to zero”.
He said the total costs of running each school “can be in excess of £30,000” a year.
Teachers attending the workshop also “complained bitterly about the delays in TRNC teachers arriving in the UK for the start of term”, noting “we are now at the end of October, and not a single professional teacher has arrived from Cyprus” and that “we can’t understand why, year after year, they can’t get their visas in time”.
The CTCA said this means that “our schools can either not start teaching, or have to try to find, with some difficulty, expensive local private teaching staff” and that “consequently, parents are losing their confidence in schools and they are withdrawing their children from Turkish education”.
Mr Zihni went on to say: “One school will have no choice but to shut its doors to its pupils for the last time very soon. We cannot afford to see the same happening to other schools. Our children are our future and we cannot take away their education.”
The CTCA workshop also called for the parents to “bring their children to our schools despite all the current difficulties, engage more with the school activities, and provide more support to the school staff”.
Despite the dire warnings, “some success stories” were also told at the workshop.
Ülkü Demirel, a teacher of 25 years of experience, reported that the Turkish language and culture school that she is involved with has abandoned its previous site and “negotiated the use of a much better building nearby under better terms”.
The promotion of school facilities has also been improved “through the use of individual school video clips”, which is “attracting more parents and pupils”.
The CTCA agreed to work with schools to “investigate current opportunities for external and other alternative sources of project funding”.