Sotiris Charalambous, member of the Administrative Council of the high school teacher’s movement “Proodeftiki”
Nowadays, efforts have been stepped up to consolidate a false conception to the most people. A conception that it does not correspond to the real interests of the people. As long as the socioeconomic system in which we live does not meet the expectations of the majority of the people and their rightful demands in the most important areas of life (work, education, health, etc.), so does the dominant manipulation mechanism unfold to damage people’s consciousness. This attack begins at younger ages and gets more and more pronounced figures in school books.
For anyone who has knowledge of the subject, the content of some school books presents a fairly coarse alteration of things. In the rest of the people, however, they seem believable and these people move on to life believing in lies, which in school were taught as truths.
For these reasons, it is of great importance to look more closely at the content of the school books, from which every effort is made to influence the pliable consciousness of tender ages, with the poison of historical falsification, the defamation of ideals that do not express or do not serve the dominant ideology, or even the mood at the expense of the great historical moments that shook the world, since they are subversive to the system.
So, the student is bombarded with a material that directs his conscience into a conservative orbit and controls the functioning of his brain within the limits of the permissible - from the system - ideas and theories, and all with the emphasis of free choice, freedom of thought and pluralism in the supply of knowledge.
It goes without saying that the so-called anthropocentric courses - history, sociology, psychology, literature, religion, civic education, etc. - they are especially suitable for the decay of students’ consciousness.
They usually do not suspect literature as a propaganda player. However, the role of literature should not be underestimated at all as it can influence consciousness with an opaque and indirect way. Nowadays, we notice that the phenomenon of the transfer of literary works on the screen (television and cinema) makes it more accessible, more direct and, above all, faster to "introduce" or "get acquainted" with their content and the people "impresses" these works, without even reading them. At the same time the doors open wide for unchecked (by the public) and arbitrary interpretations of these works. By the same means, transporting on the screen also gives the opportunity for proper and wider acquaintance with literary works, and that is why we only have to be against it in the event of misuse. However, the effect on consciousness through art proves to be multifaceted and, despite the phenomena, more direct.
The issue of historical books it is not just Cypriot. I can say that it is, at least, pan-European. Europe has in the past been the domain of expansionism, conflict, slaughter, war. All these left remnants and nationalistic – chauvinistic stereotypes, degrading to other peoples.
The last 20 years strong efforts have begun in Europe to tackle the phenomenon of historical books in an effort to remove all of these elements. The example of Germany and France is typical. The history between these two countries is full of bloodsheds, and yet, since 1949, they have been in constant consultation, they have opened roads, made bilingual television, and they make efforts of conciliation.
Our School books
Most of our school books, both literary and historical, come from Greece. What we have to admit about these books is that progress has been made in the last few decades! They have largely been freed from nationalistic and chauvinistic references. But there still is an outdated perception concerning the study and teaching of history. This outdated notion is that we read and teach history with a chronographic system as being a closed narrative around the nation - state. It is not correct to say, for example, to a child of 10, 12 years that the best nation is ours, the most important people are our and that we have not been influenced by anyone else, except from our ancient ancestors and the Byzantium. What we will succeed if we tell these things to the children? We give the wrong and dangerous perception to the children that we are the navel of the earth. And then children will react accordingly. They hide their present face behind an ancient Greek mask. They cease to be proud for what they are today. And with EU membership, we also have to face up to a racist stereotype that lies in the central European countries, which they all condemn it but they also do not admit it. And that racism is turning to those member states where their face has a more detailed profile.
But there is also the factor teacher, who is driven by ideological perceptions or political anchoring, and sometimes distorts the historical events on his own, in the process of teaching. And when it favours him, who in most cases favours him, he passes his own perceptions through events, national celebrations and other activities. It is celebrated, for example, the anniversary of ‘NO’ to the Italian fascists, but no mention is made of the National Resistance movement, EAM - ELAS, despite the fact that it was recognised by the Greek state in 1982. They refer only to the Albanian front, driving the children themselves into confusion about how Greece was liberated and about the civil war that followed. It is very easy, though, to exalt Metaxas, totally silencing the fact that he was a dictator who maintained excellent relations with both Mussolini's fascist regime and Hitler's Nazism in Germany. The same perception extends to our local history, especially the modern one, which by 2008 pupils were not examined in the Pancyprian exams and, by extension, were not taught much. Here too the teaching of history omits the criminal activity of Grivas during the period of EOKA B, whose he was founder, or even his action in the pro-Nazi Organization X, whose also was founder and leader. However, his action during the liberation struggle 55- 59 is protested, with a lot of counterfeiting, especially for the role of the Left, which he not only struggled but fought brutally, killing innocent leftist and democratic citizens. If we want to understand it better, it is as if the French honoured today the General Peten, the hero of the First World War, who in the Second World War ran with the Nazis. On the contrary! Peten is considered a traitor for the French people.
In Cypriot education, the ruling class is in the logic of a book-blindfold. Something that invalidates any attempt to succeed in a reform effort. Unfortunately, the current government, which also represents the deep state that dates back to the 1960s, also plays an anti-reformist role when any change is attempted. Hope lays at the struggles and the resistance of the teachers, but also to other movements in the field such as the university studentσ’ movement and the high school students’ movement. At this point I have to say that the Turkish Cypriot teachers, 10-15 years ago, took their fate in their hands and, against to the regime's reactions they achieved to change their own new historical writings, which are now largely free of racist, inferior and intolerant reports of the past. We have debt to the new generation of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriots. No people were lost because they changed their books by eliminating hatred. But peoples have entered painful adventures because they did not feel the need for reconciliation and peaceful cohabitation.