The educational reform program is being continued and expanded

Based on the economic policy, which ensures impressive growth in Cyprus and creates fiscal margins, the budget of the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth, for 2023 appears increased and can support both the operation of the Ministry and the development course, as well as and the ongoing reform work, said the Minister of Education, Sports and Youth, Prodromos Prodromos, during his introductory speech before the Finance Committee of the Parliament.

The Budget of the Ministry of Education, of Sports and Youth for 2023 was examined on Friday at the Parliamentary Finance Committee.

Speaking before the Finance Committee of the Parliament, Mr. Prodromou said, among other things, that expenses are budgeted to reach 1.3 billion, with an increase of 4.1% compared to 2022, adding that the increase compared to 2021 is 10 %.

“And I note this because it was the difficult years of the pandemic that we spent with the economy standing and with the possibility today to make plans. In other words, the budget of this Ministry currently exceeds 5% of the GDP. The task we have to carry out and the weight of such a budget is important,” he added.

Mr. Prodromou said that “in fact, we are in the last phase of President Anastasiades' government, if we compare his budget 2023 with the first year of this governance cycle in 2018, we have a 26% increase.”

At the same time, he pointed out that the 2022 education budget was 17% of the total budget and was considerably higher than 10 years ago, meaning that the effort seems to be intensifying.

Mr. Prodromou noted that his share of the Ministry of Education from the Recovery and Resilience Plan reaches 97 million euros.

“With these, then, the data of a healthy fiscal management and development margins, the educational reform program continues and even expands after the last two years we have included a number of additional reforms, the necessity of which has become apparent in the interim,” he added.

The digital transformation, continued the Minister of Education, is already a fact in schools, while wider planning with digital classrooms, sponsorship for individual equipment for students, training and the introduction of innovations designed by the Pedagogical Institute were presented and tested already, it will completely change the school experience in public schools in the coming years.

He also said that reform actions that are already starting and being implemented today lead us in the coming years to a radically new image, reality and experience in the public school. Education with the pilot program for the full-day high school and the inclusion of skills workshops in the school program that is being studied at the moment or even the green transition with improvement actions both in the school buildings and in the educational program”, he noted.

Regarding how the Ministry's budget is distributed, Mr. Prodromou said that the Ministry of Education plans to spend 45.7 million on school building infrastructure and 82.6 million on operational costs, maintenance and improvement of school facilities through grants to School Boards, that is a total of 127.8 million go to building infrastructure.

The total development expenditure in the budget, he continued, amounts to 223.9 million and corresponds to 17% of the budget, while 1 billion 72 million is regular expenditure.

Regarding development expenditure in education, in the 2023 budget, the Minister of Education allocated 7.6 million for the digital transition, 2.8 million for the green transition and 8.3 million for lifelong learning, while 6 million for the development of Technical and Vocational Education.

Regarding the social dimension of the budget of the Ministry of Education, Mr. Prodromou pointed out the social benefits, with the pupil and student welfare amounting to 54.4 million, among which 4.1 million is for feeding children from vulnerable social groups in schools.

He also noted the program for the prevention and treatment of violence and delinquency, aimed at the development of positive behavior, for which a budget of 3.7 million is foreseen in the framework of the budget for schools with school and social inclusion actions, the whose budget is 10 million

He added that a fund of 3.8 million is foreseen for the action for the youth through the cooperation with the Youth Organization, while for the provision of special education a budget of 22.2 million is planned beyond the payroll, with the total expenses for special education reaching 80 million.

For the music and sports schools, continued Mr. Prodromou, and the supporting learning programs, an amount of 17.3 million is foreseen.

He also stated that 159.8 million is available for grants to public universities, but overall for higher education, the budget is 162.5 million, while for higher education, including student sponsorship, the state's expenditure it reaches a height of 218.8 cm.

He noted that a separate fund, 37.4 million, is dedicated to the promotion of sports through the KOA and the KOE, while most of the budget of the Ministry of Education is absorbed by the salary of the educational staff and reaches an amount of 794.1 million, in to which is added an amount of 8 million for the payroll of secondments and concessions and services.

In total, Mr. Prodromou said, the Ministry of Education's payroll in its budget reaches 836.6 million.

He noted, at the same time, that the Ministry of Education is developing in the Ministry a plan to deal with school dropout and insufficient attendance in collaboration with technical support from European Commission services.

He also referred to the extension of free pre-primary school from the age of 4, adding that this plan, which after being approved by Parliament, will be gradually implemented over the next 3 school years.

The Minister of Education stated that the claim for privatization of pre-primary, it really alienates him.

“He was heard, but he is completely non-existent. Who should privatize? Anyway, not this Government. During this administration, the number of children in public kindergartens has increased”, he added.

The Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee, DIKO Member of Parliament, Chrysis Pantelidis, congratulated the Ministry of Education, the the Minister of Education himself and his colleagues for the organization in Cyprus of the UN Ministerial Conference on the Environment, which, as he said, is the largest international event held in Cyprus.

DISY Member of Parliament, Giorgos Karoullas, congratulated the Ministry of Education for the effective and developmental work it is carrying out, adding that there is certainly room for continuous improvement.

DISY Member of Parliament Prodromos Alabritis, congratulated the Ministry of Education for the work it carries out and produces and welcomed the political decision on air conditioners, saying that they should be implemented.

DISY Member of Parliament Onoufrios Koullas, for his part, mentioned, among other things, the issue of preschool education from the age of 4, which, as he said, he considers to be not only an educational issue, but also a social measure.

AKEL Member of Parliament, Christos Christofidis, in his statement said, among other things, that he requested that the plan that has been prepared for private kindergartens and the criteria that have been prepared be submitted to the Education Committee, the exact agreement with the Recovery and Resilience Fund, as well as the planning or exercise that was done specifically, so that with some transitional measures, public education can meet the needs of children.

The Member of Parliament of AKEL, Christos Christofias, referred to the recent incidents of intra-school violence, while he also touched on the issue of the transfer of student affairs to the Ministry of Finance and wondered who will draw up student policy, the Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Finance and the student movement with whom will it talk tomorrow when it wants to put down its demands or about problems that will arise?.

AKEL Member of Parliament, Andreas Kavkalias, in his own statement referred, among other things, to the issue of the Cyprus State Scholarship Foundation.

The President of the Parliamentary Education Committee, MP of DIKO, Pavlos Mylonas, mentioned, among other things, in his statement that whether we like it or not there is a huge problem in schools, adding that there is a problem in the composition of classes, while he also mentioned the issue of delinquency, the evaluation of teachers, four months.

The Member of Parliament of DIKO, Chrysanthos Savvidis, said, among other things, that a solution should be found for the issue of the four months, and wondered why there is so much obsession to change a successful institution such as MIEK&nbsp ?.

The Member of Parliament of EDEK, Andreas Apostolou, in his statement said, among other things, that there are ways to support schools and wondered how the state budget is distributed among the three public universities.

Dipa-Synergasia Member of Parliament, Alekos Tryfonidis, he said, among other things, that in the mountainous areas there are no multi-use rooms, and he gave an example that students can do gymnastics from October to March, and this, as he said, will be solved with the new regional Kakopetrias, while he also mentioned the issue of of secondments of Assistant Directors.

Source: www.reporter.com.cy

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