Nursery Education in North Cyprus
January 23, 2009 by Essential Ed
Filed under Education, North Cyprus Living
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.
Some examples of nursery based education is the Kings Court nursery located in Alsancak, and you can check their website www.preschoolnorthcyprus.com for more information. Alternatively you can also 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 such as the English School of Kyrenia located in Bellapais, www.englishschoolkyrenia.org, which is proving very popular with parents since opening in 2008.
Some other alternatives include Guvence Pre-School in Ozanköy (telephone +90 (0)533 845 9990), Bizim Ev Nursery in Çatalköy for babies and children up to 3 year olds (telephone +90 (0)533 841 7050), 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 which has premises in Famagusta (telephone +90 (0)392 366 5361) and in 
Kyrenia (telephone +90 392 815 3388). And finally there’s Sunny Lane School 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.
Feel free to take a look at our Education in North Cyprus section for other articles giving more information and details on the education options available for children of all ages.