Nicosia, Cyprus. A child jumped from the second-floor window of his school on Monday after learning that he had failed all his classes except foreign languages because he does not speak Turkish. Authorities said the child was not in a life-threatening condition.
Incident and official response
The child attended an unnamed Turkish Cypriot school and is not himself Turkish Cypriot.
Turkish Cypriot ‘education minister’ Nazim Cavusoglu described the incident as “unfortunate” while addressing the Turkish Cypriot legislature.
“We have been following the matter from the very beginning. The child in question is not in a life-threatening condition. A CT scan is being performed to check for fractures and dislocations. We send our best wishes for a speedy recovery,” he said.
Concerns over language barriers
The incident comes amid concerns in recent years regarding the influx of children from abroad to the north who do not speak Turkish.
Biray Hamzaogullari, a representative of opposition party the CTP, said that around 300 of the 700 children at Bekirpasha high school in Trikomo “do not speak Turkish as their first language”.
He called for “preparatory classes” for children who move to the north and enter the Turkish Cypriot public school system, so they can attain an adequate degree of Turkish before entering mainstream classes.
Policy debate
Cavusoglu had proposed a different plan, introducing legislation that would have required all non-Turkish Cypriot children to independently obtain certificates proving good knowledge of the Turkish language before being allowed to attend lessons.
The plan was criticized by Turkish Cypriot teachers’ trade union Ktos.
Cavusoglu’s plans were eventually dropped, while preparatory classes have not yet been introduced by the authorities.