Primary school system includes wide range of nationalities, ethnicities

THE Cypriot public and private primary education system includes pupils from a wide range of nationalities and ethnic groups, according to figures from the department of primary education.

The 2016-2017 school year includes – from the Cypriot community – 42,335 Greek Cypriots, 72 Turkish Cypriots, 108 Maronites, 39 Armenians and 9 Latins. There are also 8,260 children from the European Union and developing countries.
Romanians are the biggest group from the EU, accounting for 1,345 pupils, along with 1,231 Greeks, 1,057 Bulgarians, 399 British and 125 Polish.

Numbers of pupils from outside the EU are made up of 1,314 Georgians, 804 Syrians, 376 Russians, 169 Ukrainians, 113 Egyptians and 110 Moldovans.
Minister of Education Costas Kadis said the department keeps records of the exact numbers of all pupils studying in public schools based on population composition as defined by the Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus.

In kindergartens, from a total 12,260 children 10,228 are Greek Cypriot, 15 Turkish Cypriot, 20 Maronite, 6 Armenian, 2 Latin and 1,989 from the EU and developing countries.

Romanians also make up the biggest group of EU children at kindergartens at 376, followed by Greeks at 303, Bulgarians at 224 and Britons at 103. There are 243 Georgians in the kindergarten system and 235 Syrians.

Kadis said there are also 682 Pontian Greeks in high school, or 18 per cent of all foreign pupils, and that of the total 4,964 students attending technical schools 121, or 2.4 per cent, are of Pontian origin.

 

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