THE EDUCATION Ministry yesterday presented its plans to make life easier for non-Greek speaking pupils in public schools.
The ministry aims to do so by implementing its newly formed policy, which will apply from the beginning of this school year.
“It is a well known fact that over the past few years, our schools are becoming all the more multicultural due to the arrival of a large number of migrants and Greek expats returning to Cyprus,” said Education Minister Andreas Demetriou, adding that it was now very common to have pupils in public schools for whom Greek was a second language (GSL).
Based on the Ministry’s statistics for the 2008-2009 school year, the number of GSL pupils in public schools reached 8,158: 939 in nursery schools, 4,605 in primary schools, 1,651 in gymnasiums, 783 in lyceums and 180 in technical schools.
“All GSL pupils are offered the right to register for free in Cyprus’ public schools, on the levels of primary, secondary and technical education, as our educational system makes no discriminations when it comes to nationality, community, language, colour, religion, political or other preferences,” said Demetriou.
The minister said various measures had been taken over the years to deal with non-Greek speaking pupils and their education, but there hasn’t so far been a complete policy on it.
Until now. “To cover this gap, we have formed a complete and cohesive policy to help GSL pupils’ integration, which will be implemented this academic year and will be analysed as time goes on,” said Demetriou.
He added that the ministry’s general goal was to avert the pupils’ social exclusion and help them integrate in Cypriot education and society.
This goal, said Demetriou, will be achieved by following specific measures, for which priorities have been set.
The first priority is to form a successful educational programme for pupils whose Greek was limited.
“The ministry feels the first priority is to take supportive measures that will help foreign pupils learn the Greek language faster,” Demetriou explained.
These measures, he added, include extra lessons in primary schools.
“For this reason, schools have been given an added 2,069 teaching periods for the 2009-2010 school year, in addition to the 1,740 periods that were given last year. This number will lead to the employment of 71 extra teachers.”
In secondary education, the ministry plans to continue its programme that started last year on a pilot basis, and involves extensive Greek lessons for GSL pupils who have little or no knowledge of the local language.
Seeing last year’s success, the minister said the programme would begin in another 15 schools, thus covering all schools attended by foreign pupils.
In addition to these morning classes, the ministry will also offer the opportunity of afternoon classes, through state institutions.
The ministry’s second priority is to continue last year’s measure of offering public teachers training courses on how to teach Greek as a second and/or foreign language, as well as general intercultural education.
“In these programmes, which are co-funded by the Europe Accession Fund, we will train more than 500 teachers,” Demetriou explained.
The next priority will be to monitor the non-Greek speaking pupils’ progress and the way they are being treated by other pupils and teachers.
“The aim of these actions is to help these students adjust and become familiar with their new school and social environment, and to support their studies,” said Demetriou.
“We also want to inform them and their families of their obligations, as well as their rights, in our educational system.”
