British teachers trapped by Falklands invasion

Around 20 teachers from Britain were serving in the Falklands at the time of last week’s invasion by Argentina. No plans have been made as yet to get them out, the Overseas Development Administration said this week.

The teachers are recruited by the administration and sent out on renewable two-year contracts. Most of them are working in the capital, Port Stanley, but no news has been received of their circumstances since the Argentine invasion.

The invasion has caught the Falklands school system in the middle of its secondary reorganisation. All secondary teaching is being concentrated in one school in the capital, but the hostel for the 140 pupils - most families live out on sheep farms or in small settlements - is only half- built.

Meanwhile, most primary children continue to be taught under the island’s traditional “camp” system: a handful of the British teachers, for whom equestrian skills are as important as pedagogic qualifications, ride around the interior supervising tiny settlement schools staffed part-time by amateurs.