Political Framework

The educational system in Cyprus is highly centralized and the design and development of the Curriculum for kindergarten, primary and secondary education is a responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Culture, along with anything that deals with educational matters. The Ministry of Education and Culture, is responsible for the education of 3-year old children and over.Regarding administration, there are different officials appointed in Primary and Secondary Education. Until very recently, there were different curricula, policy makers, even different educational philosophies in the various levels of education. The official curriculum document for each subject taught was usually planned and developed by the inspector/s, in cooperation with selected teachers and it was supported by the respective textbooks (student book and teacher book), usually one for each class level. The textbooks were written either by teachers seconded at a certain department of the Ministry of Education and Culture, responsible for the development of the teaching material, or are written and published in Greece by a respective department of the Greek Ministry of Education and Culture. Textbooks from both Cypriot and Greek education systems pose the major teaching material and are basically the means for the implementation of the Curriculum or else the visual side of the unseen curriculum in the teaching environment.
However, the last two years Cypriot education has undergone a wide educational reform. New curricula have been designed in all school subjects that will be piloted in schools in 2011-2013.  Designing unified curricula in each subject, starting from the nursery school to the secondary school and creating a humanitarian and democratic school for all children, nurturing creative and reflective individuals with highly developed critical thinking, cooperative and interpersonal skills, were the major foci of the educational reform. In addition, for the first time, the new curricula were created by academics appointed by the Ministry of Education and Culture, in-service teachers from all educational levels who volunteered to participate in the design groups and the inspectors of each subject.