French Language instruction will be introduced at certain all-day primary schools as a pilot project with the start of the new academic year.
It might be expanded to other state primary schools as well, or removed completely from the programme, depending on this years’ results, said Panayiotis Panayides, responsible for all-day public schools at the ministry said on Tuesday.
Two obligatory teaching periods of French will be held for students in years 5 and 6 students in all-day state schools.
The decision to implement French is a continuation of a French Language introduction programme that took place over the last two academic years for year six students in 60 primary schools.
The Ministry of Education considers foreign language communication skills one of the most essential skills.
Teachers at state schools who can prove they have the necessary skills will teach the French course, or the school may make a request to the ministry for teachers to meet the demand.
Apart from French, students of all-day public schools are obliged to take four teaching periods of English whereas in other public schools the teaching hours offered are only two. Students also take two teaching hours of Computers and a separate course of Literature and Theatre, lessons that are not offered in other public primary schools.
There are also a number of elective courses including Taekwondo, ballet or chess, as well as robotics, a lesson that was introduced last year and continues in 2019, which was well received.
All students are also helped with their homework.
All-day public primary schools start at 7:45 and run until 15:05 or 16:00, apart from Wednesdays that finish normally on 13:05. There are three of these schools in Nicosia, seven in Limassol, two in Larnaca, and Famagusta and Paphos each have one all-day public school.
For more information http://www.moec.gov.cy/dde/index.html
