For such a tiny country, North Cyprus doesn’t do too badly when it comes to a choice of education options for foreign parents moving to the island with children. For children who are between the ages of 2 and 5 or 6 there is a great range of nursery facilities available island wide.
The standards of care and preschool education are often very good, and children have plenty of scope for learning with scheduled play times as well as plenty of creative sessions. For the purposes of furthering a child’s education within the state system, it is required for children to attend either one or two years of nursery education, known as Maarif, between the ages of 4-6, thereafter starting primary school.
You can search on the internet for primary education in North Cyprus, and you will find that some of the schools and facilities have their own websites or information pages such as this one on Wikipedia for the English School of Kyrenia, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_English_School_of_Kyrenia), which opened in late 2008.
Some other alternatives include Guvence Pre-School in Ozanköy (telephone +90 (0)533 845 9990), Bizim Ev Nursery in Çatalköy (telephone +90 (0)533 841 7050) for babies and children up to 3 year olds, Kyrenia Children’s Nursery (telephone +90 (0)533 848 1409), Elma Sekeri in Lefkoşa (telephone +90 (0)533 868 1711) and Maarif Pre-Primary School (telephone +90 (0)392 366 5361) which has premises in Famagusta and in Kyrenia (telephone +90 392 815 3388). And finally there’s the British Academy (formerly Sunny Lane) which takes children from the age of 2 and which has a purpose built international school campus in Alsancak (telephone +90 (0)392 821 2011).
Most nurseries are made up of children from many different backgrounds and nationalities, and at such a young age integration is easy because language is still being learned and children who attend mixed nationality kindergartens quickly pick up enough English and Turkish to make themselves understood by the Cypriot and British staff, the other children and the parents.
Please visit our other sections on education for further information on primary, secondary and higher education facilities in North Cyprus.
2 Comments
I really want to open a nursery here in northern Cyprus, I currently working as a NVQ L3 nursery nurse\room leader, but looking for a challenge, just enquiring xxx
I am Indian I am living in catalkoy I want to English medium school for my child which is 4 years old. Like pre primary school so can you please send me this school is English medium? And if yes so can you please send me a fees structure.
Thank you
Niraj shah