Speech of Christos Christofides at the bicommunal meeting co-hosted by Greekcypriot and Turkishcypriot Teachers’ Unions

 

Speech of Christos Christofides, member of the Political Bureau of the C.C. OF AKEL and Head of AKEL’s Education Bureau

at the bicommunal meeting co-hosted by the

Progressive Technical Education Teachers Movement and KTOEOS (Turkish Cypriot Teachers’ Trade Union)

Rodon Hotel, Saturday 30th January 2016

,

Fellow compatriots,

 

On this important day for the Greek Cypriots, as we celebrate today the Day of the Letters, the joint meeting of teachers from the Progressive Teachers Movement and KTOEOS conveys a message of hope to our homeland and people. It exemplifies a photograph from the Cyprus of the future: the Cyprus of the solution, reunification, freedom and democracy, the Cyprus of human rights, multiculturalism and creation, the Cyprus that will finally leave nationalism, fascism and the occupation behind.

Cypriots of the progressive spectrum are the greatest hope for the country. The seed of hope and salvation that the Left has planted in the two communities immediately after the coup d’état and the 1974 invasion is now bearing fruit. We went through very difficult times. Nor is our struggle easy today. However, now a majority current in society agrees that rapprochement, the common struggle of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, collaboration and co-creation is the future we want; the future that can provide security and prosperity to Cyprus and our people. A majority social current, with the Left as its pillar, covers all the ideological and political spectrums, with the demand of a correct solution of the Cyprus problem, for peace, security and prosperity.

Our teachers are an important pillar in this effort. They are the agency through which universal principles and values ​​will be transmitted to the young generation; the generation that will live in the Cyprus we all envision, the Cyprus of the future.

What education do we envisage to build the Cyprus we want?

 

We want a culture open to an open society; a tolerant and inclusive society. We want an education that respects and nurtures the specific national characteristics of each community, an education system however that allows a cultural osmosis. It will not be static and stagnant. It will not be nationalistic. It will not be racist. It will create a citizen that will love and cherish freedom and democracy, centred on people’s interests and needs, a defender of human rights; that will educate a citizen that will accept and tolerate diversity; that will utilize our common culture and history as Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots; that will open doors to the world, to the whole of humanity at a time when universality is necessary as never before. We envisage an education system that will combat social inequalities; that will abolish the equation of the wealthy and educated on the one hand and on the other the poor and uneducated; that will eliminate social exclusion and social marginalization and, that will promote the equality of citizens, social justice and the love for the arts and culture.

We envision a culture in which our young people will love Cavafy, Seferis, Ritsos and Kazantzakis. At the same time, our youth will acquaint themselves with Nazim Hikmet. Pablo Neruda, T.S.Eliot – all the best global thinking has to offer. They will learn and be moved by our own Cypriot cultural artists: Tefkros Anthias, Theodosis Pierides, Kyriakos Charalambides, but also, inter alia, Neşe Yaşın.

Today, do we have the education we want?

Unfortunately, our country’s education system is still phobic and influenced by the nationalist remnants of the previous decades. It is under the onslaught of an educational Anti-reform, which ignores the majority of school students, the popular strata and is plunging us back to a bygone past. Today, measures are being implemented for an education that will serve a select and privileged elite. Policies are being promoted towards an Anti- education reform for an undemocratic, authoritarian and exam-based education system.

While there are significant developments with regards the Cyprus problem, the government and ruling forces refuse to take steps forward. On the contrary, even on the issues of nationalism and intolerance, we have moved backwards and regressed.

– The Ministry of Education rejected the proposal to inform and enlighten school pupils on the issues relating to Federation.

– The government and ruling forces refused to set as the educational goal for this year the peaceful coexistence of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.

– On the contrary, even to this today, given that the Ministry of Education’s circular has not been withdrawn, there is an attempt to reintroduce in our schools the ideology and practice of Grivas with the notorious visits to the illegal hideout of the founder of EOKA B.

– An attempt is underway to falsify and distort history through the efforts to present the betrayal and treachery of 1974 as a “civil war”.

The last incident which I am obliged to denounce today is the prohibition and banning in reality of the Bicommunal Choir to appear at an event at the Lyceum of Strovolos. The “justification” was that the Choir would sing a song in Turkish! And this was done with the knowledge and consent of the Minister of Education.

We cannot move forward in this way. The President of the Republic must assume the responsibility he shares. When the President of the Republic was proposing in public that the Turkish Cypriot play should go to all the schools, in what language would it perform?

The Technical Committee for Education agreed at the negotiations is a step forward. The Committee was created because there is a need. There is a problem – a fact that the government and ruling forces were denying for a long time. However, even in the government’s appointment of the members of this Commission, unacceptable behaviors were noted.

My fellow compatriots,

On the other side, things aren’t any better – quite the contrary. Now is the time of our common effort. Now is the time for the majority of society which agrees with the vision of a democratic and open education, for a free and reunified Cyprus, for rapprochement and the common struggle of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, for a correct solution, to move forward and take the lead.

We can make the difference.

And our teachers can be the protagonists.