The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport and Youth in Cyprus has planned a legislative reform with the aim to make the education system more inclusive. Upon request of the Ministry, the European Commission’s Structural Reform Support Service (SRSS) is co-operating with the Agency to assist in preparing a new bill for inclusive education. The first phase of the project was completed in summer 2019 and has resulted in the development of a draft bill on inclusive education. The initiative is funded by the EU through the Structural Reform Support Programme.
The next step of the Agency’s work in Cyprus is to support the project’s second phase – finalising the bill on inclusive education and preparing its regulations. Activities of this phase include a resource analysis of the current system, a study visit and working group work. The overall aim of these activities is to formulate recommendations, which will be the basis for the development of the regulations for the implementation of the bill.
The second phase officially started with a two-day visit of the Agency team and a representative from the European Commission to the Ministry, on 19 and 20 September 2019. The kick-off meeting began with a welcome from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sport and Youth, Dr Kostas Champiaouris, who confirmed the Ministry’s commitment to supporting the legislative reform.
Following this, the Agency team had meetings with the members of the Steering Committee of the Ministry, during which they discussed the details of the implementation of the second phase. This meeting also gave an opportunity for the Cypriot representatives to present important projects and programmes run by the Ministry to the representatives from the European Commission and the Agency.
The meeting also involved discussions with key stakeholder representatives, who were briefed on the next steps of the Action and were asked for their active involvement in the upcoming working groups.
A new round of visits and working group work in Cyprus will begin in January 2020.