Greek course for foreigners hugely successful

OVER 6,000 people from 92 countries are taking part in the Greek language learning course organised by the Education Ministry in the past two years.

Under the motto ‘Learn Greek’ the course aims to help immigrants and foreigners residing in Cyprus, to integrate, Minister George Demosthenous said, describing the course as a successful and an innovative one. 

The number of participants in the first two years reached 6,078, from 92 countries and it is estimated that it will rise to 15,000 by 2015, the minister said.

The Greek language learning course is co-financed by 70 per cent from the European Social Fund and its budget amounts to €3.2 million.

“The course has so far been extremely successful” Demosthenous said. 

Director of Secondary Technical and Professional Education Elias Markatzes said that the educational level of the participants was high. In particular 3,178 are already university graduates, 619 are secondary school graduates, 1,719 are upper secondary graduates and 563 are primary education graduates.  

According to the data given most of the participants come from Romania (1,007), Britain (806), Bulgaria (797) and Russia (530). 

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.