Parents told no new Melkonian class this year

By Jean Christou
Cyprus Mail
June 18 2004
PARENTS who believed they had registered their children for the
first year at the Melkonian Educational Institute (MEI) were shocked
yesterday when they were told no such class would be operated from
September this year.
Troupia Samonian told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that she had enrolled
her primary school-age daughter for the first year of secondary school
at the Armenian school weeks ago but when she went yesterday with
another parent, they were told that no children were being registered
for the new school year.
Parents were also told that entrance exam dates for graduates from
the Armenian Elementary Nareg in Nicosia, Larnaca, Limassol, scheduled
for yesterday and today had been cancelled.
The New York-based Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), which
plans to close the 78-year old school in June 2005, despite fierce
opposition, had invited parents to enroll their children for day school
in September. The advertisement in early May said registration would
take place from May 19. Those who recently contacted the school were
told their children could not be registered because they had missed
the deadline. However, no deadline was specified in the advertisement.
Samonian was one of the parents who registered early, but she said
when she went to MEI yesterday she was told there would be no class
for her daughter to attend.
"I registered three weeks ago and I sat back thinking my daughter
would be attending school in September,' she told the Mail yesterday.
"I was totally surprised that they had changed their minds again."
She said that she was not even informed of the situation until she
visited the school yesterday.
Samonian said that when she asked to see the principal, she was
instead directed to Gordon Anderson, the representative of the AGBU
in Cyprus. He told her there would be no registrations for the school
year but recalled that there had been an advertisement telling parents
they could enroll their children for the new school year.
"He remembered but it was all changed," she said. "I asked why
parents were not informed and why no one had bothered to call about
the changed decision. This concerns our children`s futures and we
didn't know about it."
Samonian said all she managed to get out of them was a lot of "blah
blah blah". 'The only conclusion we can draw is that they plan to
close down the school at all costs," she said.
Anderson told the Cyprus Mail that they had decided not to run the
first-year class from September because so few parents had applied
to register their children. Asked why parents had not been informed
that the class would not be run, he said: "It's not my responsibility."
However sources told the Mail that the teachers were also in the dark
about what was going on so they could not have informed the parents
there would be no class.
"They have backtracked and now are not accepting anyone," said a
member of the school's alumni, who are trying to fight the closure
decision. The alumni believe the AGBU wants to get its hands on the
property, worth £40 million and sell it to developers.
"It was a nice little trick," said the alumni member. "They are also
in the process of shutting down the school's website and plan to fire
the local board over the summer. Verbally they are saying one thing
but they are doing another."
Yesterday, seven parents from the Armenian primary school in Larnaca
wrote to the Education Minister asking for his intervention and
enclosing a letter to the AGBU asking why their children were being
denied an Armenian education.