Orhan Seyfi Ari

Orhan Seyfi Ari

An Idealist and Visionary

(1918-1992)



“A luminary to so many teachers”

(Editorial in ‘Halkin Sesi’ of 27 December 1992)



A School Teacher\'s Mark on Educational History, Teaching, Social Culture





Of those who wrote about him in English/American, in Turkish, in Greek –book-magazine-newspaper articles and officially and privately (in England, Cyprus, Australia).. to a poet he was a star –in his poem, to a columnist an eminent school, to an author a remarkable man, to an editor a defender of liberties, to a writer an honour to have known, and to a researcher ‘Such nice things I have heard about him!’...



To the Secretary of State for Education he was ‘the teacher of teachers’ –inscribed on his tomb, a university professor’s condolences from Turkey were to his nation –who in his honour named a street after him.



Orhan Ari was born in Lapithiou -Paphos, in the, at the time, British colony of Cyprus.. after completing his secondary and high-school education in Nicosia, and upon qualifying through Morphou Teachers Training College, he also studied agriculture…



With a keen interest in his continuing professional development through courses and seminars, and as to the rest mostly self-educated, he has left his unmistakeable mark in the educational, cultural, ethical, social, progress and development of Cyprus.



He had been a secondary school teacher, a head teacher, a lecturer; an occasional columnist, in his personal circle of friends also a debater, mystic, poet..

in retirement he was invited overseas to inspect schools, and to give talks to cultural organisations…



He was a true and courageous leader of both pupils and peoples ~his extraordinary motivating skills had made him a choice of the British for the pioneering educational and socio-cultural development of many of the country’s peoples, and...