european journal of social sciences issn: 1450-2267 - EuroJournals

European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 5, Number 3 (2007)
populations that the idea of Enosis 4 , or union with Greece, came into greater form for the Greek
population. This was an attempt to fight the power of their British colonizers.
The British occupation of the island organized the educational system so that the Greek and
Turkish populations could determine, to a large extent, the structure and scope of what subject matter
was offered in the schools, but there was still a high commissioner appointed by the English colonial
government possessing the approval/disapproval authority over their decisions. Both groups worked
within themselves to minimize the influence of British culture in what was being taught to students.
An example of this lies in monetary grants that were offered to the school systems by British
authorities. These came with the caveat that the subject matter be deemed desirable by the British
authorities and reflect positively the British influence of the day 5 . School systems, as a whole, found
ways to operate outside the needs of these monetary resources and so the British influence was further
reduced. In this context of colonization, it served to fuel the drive of the population in resisting the
British influence in as many ways as possible.
Life on the island meant that the two ethnic groups had daily interactions with each other that
were outside the school systems. While not every school was strictly Greek or Turkish, there were still
schools that emphasized one culture and their numbers grew through the subsequent settlement and
demographic patterns that emerged within and throughout the communities and the choice of parents
for where their children would attend.
Through the course of daily life, Greeks and Turks naturally did business with each other and in
these exchanges, the Greek language was used as the language of commerce. This bi-lingual ability
was seen as being practically useful by the Turkish communities and so the Greek language was
considered the lingua franca. The Turkish Cypriot schools began to offer several foreign languages in
their curriculums in 1896. These languages included English, French, and eventually Greek. Though
the Turkish schools began offering Greek as an academic subject, Greek schools never reciprocated in
teaching the Turkish language. While there was pragmatic use of the language in the social context of
the island, it was not recognized as an official need by Greek schools.
The fact that Turks and Greeks built their school systems apart from one another allowed each
group to further develop and implement curricula which further fit into social priorities, most often
political, which existed at the time. The curriculum within each schooling system took the form of
being a political tool with which both groups could struggle against British colonization. Enosis had
been a strong sentiment held in the Greek population throughout British rule. Enosis is an important
concept here for two reasons. First, it galvanized the Greek population(s) against the power of the
colonizing British. Second, it remained a social belief after colonization ended that eventually led to
animosities between the Greek and Turkish populations. We might refer to Enosis as a renaissance, or
rebirth, concept with regard to Greek identity.
The relationship between the Greek and Turkish communities in Cyprus, in both a
contemporary and historical sense, has determined the nature and direction of what is taught in their
schooling systems. In turn, the curricular substance and orientation of these school systems have been
utilized as a bulwark for maintaining the prevailing attitudes and characteristics of a certain political
text (and context) to students of the younger generation 6 . The story of this island has been and
continues to be the struggle for cultural identity and its legitimacy, and this area is where the political
element of the curriculum comes into play for each community, for it serves as a counter-measure to
perceived oppressive hegemony from the opposite group.
Tolerance being a tool in teaching, though it was once a virtue for at least the Turkish part of
the population, has all but disappeared from the consciousness of the present political leadership.
However, this is not an issue revolving solely an issue about cultural identity and its sustainment. The
4 Ioannidou, M. (1997). Curriculum as political text: the case of Cyprus. History of Education 26(4): 395-407.
5 Persianis, P. (1996) The British colonial education ‘lending’ policy in Cyprus (1878-1960): and intriguing example of an
elusive ‘adapted education’ policy. Comparative Education 32(1) pp. 45-68.
6 Ioannidou, M. (1997). Curriculum as political text: the case of Cyprus. History of Education 26(4): 395-407.
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