STAFF at the Melkonian Educational Institute (MEI) yesterday hit back at allegations by the US-based Armenian foundation that runs the school and wants to close it, that educational standards are not up to scratch.

A statement from the staff yesterday said they had been officially informed by the Central Board of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), in New York that the school was to close down in June 2005.

When it announced the closure of the school earlier this week, the AGBU said that while it had taken into consideration “continuing deficit levels” at the school, this was not the primary reason it was being closed.

It then cited “recent educational performance” as the key element in its decision and said that if the MEI had provided exceptional opportunities to its students as it had done in the past, “substantial subsidisation would be warranted”.

Their conclusion is that “unfortunately this is not the case…”

Yesterday, the staff hit back: “We would like to make it clear that, during the whole process so far, the staff at Melkonian have not had any opportunity to know the detailed criteria upon which their work was being judged, nor have they been party to, or had any chance to challenge, any report relating to the quality of the teaching and learning in the school. Indeed, the staff can verify that, in reaching the conclusion that ‘MEI no longer meets the challenges of its mission’, no classroom has been visited nor has any qualified person made any professional inspection of the main work of the School; that is, teaching and learning.”

It added that staff could only assume that the AGBU’s conclusions had been reached by people unqualified to assess the standards of the school and were therefore unacceptable. They said they would do everything in their power to resist the closure of the school.
“The staff strongly refute the allegation that the school does not provide exceptional opportunities to its students. We are affronted that we are currently judged to be failing our students in this respect. Indeed, we would say that the educational opportunities provided are of a high and continually improving standard,” the announcement said.

“It can also be demonstrated that, rather than declining standards, the School has in recent years improved standards of curricular provision and student achievements well beyond those of the 1960s. This is despite the fact that, in the words of the AGBU, ‘compared to similar institutions in the area, MEI requires a relatively much lower financial commitment.’ We feel that excellent value for money is being provided.”

The staff said they strongly suspected that the “unfounded” argument of declining standards was nothing more than a smokescreen, designed to pave the way for an ultimate sale of the land on which the MEI has stood since 1926.

The loss-making Melkonian school is sitting on a £40 million plot in the capital’s prime commercial district and reports have been rife that it is up for grabs by developers.
The AGBU initially denied this and said in November that the school was not for sale. However the alumni are convinced the foundation’s only aim is to “take the money and run”.

A demonstration by the entire Armenian community has been arranged for next Wednesday outside the school.

The AGBU administers 22 Armenian schools worldwide including the Melkonian, which was founded in 1926 and is today the only secondary school in Cyprus for the Armenian community; dozens of other Armenian pupils also board there from neighbouring countries.