A comparative study of the attainments of children in service schools in Cyprus

Abstract

This study is concerned with the attainment of 'service-children' in Cyprus. In Cyprus there are both Royal Air Force and Army schools and because of the political situation, service-children there have been subjected to even more changes of school than is normal for a service child. Conflicting views, concerning the effect of changes of school on academic achievement, are expressed in much recent research in America. The age-group, eight years to eight years eight months, was selected as being the most representative sample of service-children. As children become older, increasing numbers of them, particularly children of officers and senior non-commissioned officers, are sent to boarding schools in the United Kingdom. This age group have been of school age for three plus years, and are likely to have had, at least, one more change of school, than is normal for children in the United Kingdom, due to the father's posting. The service-children were tested in Verbal Ability, English Progress and Mechanical Arithmetic. The scores obtained in the Primary Verbal Test I, which is frequently used as a measure of verbal intelligence, were compared with the United Kingdom norm for children of similar age, normally resident in the United Kingdom and without socio-economic bias. There was no significant difference in verbal ability between the two groups, therefore the English Progress and Mechanical Arithmetic scores could be compared. Results showed that, despite changes of school during their period of residence in Cyprus and throughout their school life, the service-children did not obtain lower scores in the attainment tests than children of comparable age in the United Kingdom. There were, in fact, significant differences, in favour of the service-children, in English Progress and Mechanical Arithmetic. The results suggest that other factors, linked with the administrative and social aspect of service-life have compensated for the lack of continuity in the education of service children in Cyprus. Trends obtained from evaluating data in this research do indicate that the scores of service- children in Mechanical Arithmetic and of boys in English Progress are depressed by increased length of time spent overseas and with absence from school. Further areas of research are suggested with reference to the trend of results.