Officials from the north on Monday entered the three Greek Cypriot schools in Rizokarpaso to “carry out checks”, the education ministry said.
They said the officials, who could not be identified, entered the pre-school, middle school, and secondary school and “began to check everything, from books, notebooks, classrooms, as well as electronic and other teaching materials.”
Additionally, they said, the officials “isolated teachers and subjected them to continuous questioning.”
Spokespeople for the education ministry told the Cyprus Mail, “this is a regular occurrence” at Greek Cypriot schools in the north.
The reported intervention comes weeks after Education Minister Athena Michaelidou said the north’s authorities had been “systematically blocking” Greek Cypriot pupils’ access to education in Rizokarpaso, and the “smooth operations” of schools in the village.
Last year, reports had surfaced that Turkish Cypriot authorities had been blocking the passage of inspectors at the schools. It later emerged that a group of Greek Cypriot teachers had been impeding them too.
At the time, the north’s ‘foreign ministry’ had said the Republic would have to file a request with the United Nations to perform fresh inspections at the schools.
The Cyprus Mail contacted the north’s ‘foreign ministry’ and ‘education ministry’ for comment.
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