Erasmus+ KA2 Our heritage is our treasure LTTA, Anarita, Cyprus

1. Cyprus
Educational
System

2. Structure of Cyprus Educational
System

3. Free and Compulsory
Education
The public one year of pre-primary, six years in primary
and three years in secondary education is compulsory
and free of charge.
The government pays the salaries of teachers, provides
books and other material to schools and subsidizes all
local Commissions on the basis of the number of
registered pupils.
Education is compulsory in the early years, beginning
at the age of four years and eight months, and it is
within the parents’ jurisdiction to decide whether and
when they should arrange a placement for their children
in a public or private Pre-Primary school.

4. Free and Compulsory
Education
►Primary schools provide a six-year compulsory program
for children who have attained five years and eight months
of age.
►Secondary education extends over six years (12-18).
It is divided in two cycles:
- the lower or gymnasium (12-15) and
- the upper or Lyceum (15-18).
►In Cyprus education is compulsory up to the age of
fifteen and 99 % of students graduate this level of
education. 92 % of students graduate the six-year circle of
secondary education.

5. Primary Schools
Attendance in Primary Schools is compulsory.
Children should be at least five years and eight
months old (5 8/12), in order to get enrolled in
the first grade.
There are four types of public primary schools
according to the registered number of students:
• one-cluster of classes schools in small rural
communities,
• two-cluster of classes schools in small rural
communities,
• schools with three to five classes / cluster of classes
in small rural communities, and
• schools with six or more teachers in urban areas and
large rural communities

6. Structure of the Department of
Primary Education

7. Primary Education
The various sectors of the department of Primary
Education include:
► pre-primary education (pre-primary schools:
state, communal, private),
► primary education (primary schools in the free
and occupied parts of Cyprus),
► education for children with special needs
(schools for children with special needs and the
rendering of individualized help to children with
special needs placed in primary schools),
► Cyprus educational mission in the U.K.,
► adult education centers,
► educational and summer camps and
►education of the Greeks of diaspora.

8. Characteristics
The education service in Cyprus is highly centralised.
The Ministry of Education and Culture controls the
curriculum, the textbooks and the other resources
needed to deliver it.
Local school boards are funded by the Ministry and their
role is restricted to matters of building, maintenance,
and supplies.
Schools are directly controlled by the Ministry via the
inspectorate and the school headteachers, the latter
having less devolved responsibility than in many other
educational systems.

9. Assessment, progression and
qualifications
At the level of students
The assessment of pupils, which forms an integral part of teaching,
aims at gauging the degree of success of its aims as they are set by
the curricula. Assessment combines a variety of types and techniques
so that it can achieve a reliable, objective and fair evaluation of
knowledge, the critical thinking and the skills of the pupils, contribute
to self-knowledge and autonomous thinking as well as how well pupils
acquire objective information, the level of their learning and their
capabilities.
The education system at the secondary level provides for diagnostic
assessment of pupils, formative assessment and final written
examinations conducive to promotion. Continuous assessment in the
Gymnasium is on a scale of 1-20. Used to be since 2017 on a scale of
A to E.
Continuous assessment in the upper division, eniaio lyceum & technical
school is on a scale of 1-20. It is also both oral and written (quizzes,
revision tests, class tests and projects) supplemented by compulsory
internally set final examinations in Greek, Mathematics, History and
Physics.

10. School year calendar: starts, finish,
interruptions and total class days
for Primary Education
Period Start Finish
1st First Monday of September 22nd of December
2nd 7th of January Friday before Easter
3rd Second Monday after Easter
Friday before last of
June

11. School year calendar: starts, finish,
interruptions and total class days
The school year comprises 180 days between the
beginning of September
until
the third week of June.
Schools open five days a week with 35 lesson periods.
The school day begins at 7:45 until 13:05 and contains
seven teaching periods.
A lesson period duration is 40 minutes.

12. School Day Timetable
Time Activities
07:45 – 09:05 2 teaching periods
09:05 – 09:25 Brake – 20 minutes
09:25 – 10:45 2 teaching periods
10:45 – 10:55 Brake – 10 minutes
10:55 – 12:15 2 teaching periods
12:15 – 12:25 Brake – 10 minutes
12:25 – 13:05 1 teaching period

13. Subjects and teaching periods per week
No. SUBJECT GRADE
A
GRADE
B
GRADE
C
GRADE
D
GRADE
E
GRADE
ST
TOTAL
1 Greek Language 12 12 10 10 9 9 62
2 Mathematics 7 7 7 7 6 6 40
3 History --- --- 2 2 2 2 8
4 Religion 2 2 2 2 2 2 12
5 Geography / School Garden 2 2 2 2 2 2 12
6 Science and Technology 2 2 2 2 --- --- 8
7 Science --- --- --- --- 2 2 4
8 Art 2 2 2 2 2 2 12
9 Music 2 2 2 2 2 2 12
10 Physical Education 2 2 2 2 3 3 14
11 English Language 2 2 2 2 2 2 12
12 Design and Technology /
Health Education-Domestic Economy
--- --- --- --- 2 2 4
13 Health & Sustainable Development Education 2 2 2 2 --- --- 8
14 Sustainable Development Education --- --- --- --- 1 1 2
TOTAL 35 35 35 35 35 35 210

14. Teaching periods per week for
teaching stuff
HEADMASTERS PERIODS
In schools with:
- Three teachers 21
- Four teachers 19
- Five teachers 17
- Six teachers 15
- Seven to Nine teachers 13
- Ten or more teachers 11
DEPUTY HEADMASTERS 23

15. Teaching periods per week for
teaching stuff
TEACHERS PERIODS
Years of Educational Service:
Between 1st to 14th 29
Between 15th to 20th 27
More than 21 years of service 25
More than 50 years of age 25

16. Recruitment,
Professional progression
In the public educational institutions the teaching staff is appointed,
promoted and subject to disciplinary proceedings by the Education
Service Committee (ESC).
The committee promotes also the inspectors and the senior officers
of education.
The Education Service Committee is an independent committee
of five members, appointed directly by the President of the
Republic of Cyprus for a six years term.

17. Recruitment,
Professional progression
A university degree (or an equivalent degree) in the subject to be
taught renders teachers eligible for inclusion in the official register of
candidates for appointment.
A teacher’s appointment is based on a system where
primary priority is determined by the year of submitting the
applications
(on the principle ‘first come first served’).
Secondary priority (among the applicants of the same year) is
decided on a system of units which the candidate accumulates
according to the date of graduation, special qualifications and
previous service in education.
We are now in a transitional period of changing our system
of recruitment. The new system of recruitment will be based
completely on an examination system by the year 2028.

18. Professional progression
in Primary Education
► Teacher
► Deputy Headmaster
► Headmaster
► Inspector
► Senior Officer of Education
► (General Inspector of Primary Education)
► Manager of Primary Education

19. Salaries in Education

20. Ongoing reforms
1. Initiating a public dialogue for Educational Reform
2. Dealing with school failure
3. Rearrangement of the day-long Primary School,
and extension of the measure to pre-primary and
secondary schools.
4. Administrative restructuring of the Ministry of
Education and Culture
5. Preparation of a New Evaluation Scheme of
Educational Work and Educators
6. Changing the landscape in Tertiary Education
7. Establishment of a Center of Educational Research
and Evaluation
8. Fighting Parallel education
9. In Service Training of teachers

21. Influence by other educational
systems
The educational system of Cyprus has been
influenced by the educational systems of Greece,
Britain and the USA.
Their impact is obvious in the organization and
administration of education, the curriculum and the
school textbooks.
This is a natural consequence of the British rule over
Cyprus that affected the systems of organization and
administration of schools as well as the education of
schoolteachers of primary education.
At the same time, most teachers of secondary and
tertiary education studied in universities of Greece,
Britain and the USA.

22. Lower secondary education
(the gymnasium)
►Lower secondary education offers full-time compulsory
education to pupils 12 to 15 years of age.
►Full attendance is also obligatory.
►A public primary school leaving certificate is required in
order to enroll in the gymnasium without entrance
examinations.
►On graduation, the students are awarded the ‘Apolyterion
Gymnasiou’.
►During the school year 2004-2005 the number of pupils
attending the gymnasia amounted to 28 050 with an
average of 25 pupils per class.
►The school year comprises 180 days between the
beginning of September till the middle of June.
►Schools open five days a week with an average of 37
lesson periods.
►The school day begins at 7:30 until 13:35 and a lesson
lasts 45 minutes.

23. Upper secondary education
►The lyceum cycle of state upper secondary general
education offers a 3 year optional education
programme for pupils aged between 15 and 18.
►The holders of ‘Apolyterio Gymnasiou’ may enter a
lyceum or a technical school without taking further
examinations.
►During the school year 2004-2005 the number of
pupils attending the Lyceum reached 23 303 with
minimum 16 and maximum 24 pupils per class.
►The school year comprises 180 days between
beginning of September till the middle of June.
►Schools open five days a week with an average of
37 lesson periods.
►The school day begins at 7:30 until 13:35 and a
lesson lasts 45 minutes.

24. Post-secondary education
(Higher/Tertiary Education)
Currently Higher Education is provided by
public and private third level institution as
follows:
► University level higher education
► Non- university public higher
institutions
► Non – university, private higher
education institutions (colleges)

25. Education systems for people
with Special Needs
In Cyprus the provision of education to disabled
children has traditionally taken place in special
schools, where they are segregated from their peers.
In 1979 this practice was made statutory by the Law
for Special Education, whose most important
provision was the education of disabled children in
segregated settings.
The 1979 law remained in force until 1999, when a
new law was passed giving the right to all children to
attend their neighbourhood school; new legislation
has been criticized for continuing to speak only of
‘children with special needs’.

26. Methods of teaching
Mixed ability teaching is a clear and stated policy
of the Ministry of Education and Culture.
There is no restriction in this policy to Primary
schools or to the early stages of Secondary
schools and it must be assumed that it applies
through to the third year of Lyceum.
Of course in Cyprus mixed ability is adopted as
policy throughout the school stages.
The argument is made that differentiation is
achieved at the Lyceum stage because pupils
choose the options in which they are most able.

27. The status of educational
technology in primary and
secondary education
All European nations have established policies for
incorporating ICT in education.
Their objectives have been set in the categories of
equipment, the acquisition and development of software,
the skills of teachers and students, and the use of the
Internet.
Cyprus has established objectives in all six areas for
primary education and upper secondary education.
In the primary level, the trend among European education
systems is to integrate ICT as tools for learning.

28. The Educational Profile of Cyprus
The Statistical Service Report for the school year 2014/15
provides the following data on education in Cyprus:
► 1311 Educational Institutions of all levels
► 178 116 students
► 14 228 educational stuff
► The ratio of educators to students in all levels of
education is 1:12,3
(1:12,8 primary, 1:10,1 secondary education)
► 71,8% of students are in public educational
institutions
► 28,2% of students are in private educational
institutions

29. Public expenditure spending in 2014
Public expenditure spending in 2014 for all education
levels were € 1,142.2 million and corresponds to
13.4% of the State Budget and 6.5% of Gross
Domestic Product.
The total current public expenditure per student on
public education institutions by level of education
was as follows:
► Preschool and pre-primary: € 4,956/student,
► Primary education: € 6,230/student
► Secondary education: € 9,611/student
► Tertiary education: € 10,795/student