Cyprus leaders to attend opening of bicommunal educational seminar

Cyprus President, Nicos Anastasiades, and Turkish Cypriot leader, Mustafa Akinci, are both scheduled to attend on Monday a bicommunal conference at Ledra Palace in Nicosia.

The leaders of the two communities will attend the opening of the conference entitled “Transformational leadership in peace”, organized by the bicommunal Technical Committee on Education and will be attended by 50 Greek Cypriot and 50 Turkish Cypriot school Directors. UNSG’s Special Representative in Cyprus, Elizabeth Spehar, and a representative of the German embassy in Nicosia will also attend the opening.

A total of 100 Directors of Primary Schools Gymnasiums, Lyceums and Technical High Schools from both sides of the divide will participate as the Greek Cypriot Co-Chair of the bicommunal Technical Committee on Education, Michalinos Zembylas, has told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA). Zembylas said that the aim is to look into the role of school leaders in promoting peaceful co-existence, inter-cultural education, an education that promotes human rights and education on citizenship.

The conference will focus on how the school leader can create a culture of critical citizenship at schools on the basis of the philosophy and the practices of the Council of Europe for cultivating a democratic citizenship through education, he added. Zembylas said Professor Tony Gallagher from Northern Ireland will speak during the conference while a workshop will follow for the participating school Directors.

President Anastasiades and Akinci will address the opening while introductory remarks will also be made by Zembylas and the Turkish Cypriot Co-Chair of the Technical Committee on Education Meltem Onurkan Samani.

The conference will be held in the framework of the bicommunal educational programme “Imagine”, that takes place under the auspices of the bicommunal Technical Committee on Education, and is implemented by the Association for Historical Dialogue and Research (AHDR) and the Home for Cooperation (H4C) with the support of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany and the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus.