How addressing school shortages would boost Cyprus’ tech economy

With some drawing on their personal experience of the issue, experts recently discussed how addressing school shortages will boost Cyprus’ tech economy.

A panel discussion entitled ‘Breaking Barriers: Addressing School Shortages to Boost Cyprus's Tech Economy,’ was recently held within the framework of the TechIsland Summit in Limassol. The Summit was part of the Reflect Festival.

This discussion addressed the shortage of private English-language school places in Cyprus, which has been described as a barrier affecting the country's ability to attract international businesses and tech talent.

By exploring the implications of this educational gap on Cyprus's economic and technological ambitions, the panel explored potential reforms and strategic actions to expand educational capacity, reduce bureaucratic obstacles, and thereby enhance Cyprus's appeal as a global tech hub.

The panelists were Dr Athena Michaelidou, Minister of Education, Sports & Youth, Petr Valov, co-founder & CEO of Exness & TechIsland Board Member, Alexis Andreou, Director, Pascal Private School and Costas Constantinides, Co-founder at Lighthouse Private School. Tanya Romanyukha, General Manager, TechIsland was the Moderator.

Starting off the discussion, Romanyukha revealed that the high quality of the private education sector in Cyprus was one of the reasons she had chosen to relocate to the island.

Romanyukha noted that a sudden increase in demand for English-medium schools had created a bottleneck and domino effect which, she said, was now blocking the tech sector from further expansion.

Michaelidou said that education, and not just higher education, was an important part of the government’s efforts to facilitate investors.

“We want Cyprus to become an educational hub and we are here to help,” she said, adding that the state was already moving ahead on this and making education a priority, recognising that this is a key factor for bringing skilled workers to Cyprus.

“We have changed the law so that children will not miss out on their schooling; we respect the syllabus of the country of origin. This was not the fact until a year ago. Anything else we can facilitate, we will,” she said, referring to pupils now being able to continue their schooling from where they left off overseas. Michaelidou also said the state was also open to stakeholder suggestions.

In his intervention, Valov said that, as part of the tech industry, he could share that its members generally preferred an English-medium education because they wanted their children to follow a curriculum that would allow them to seamlessly relocate to another country later on if needed.

“Some do eventually go on to the (Greek-language) state schools but most prefer the private ones because of the English language,” he said, adding, “This is among the main selling points for many of our companies, along with the good climate, good food, Cyprus’ EU membership and the English-language environment.”

As noted by Valov, the good quality English-language education for the children was indeed often the main attraction for skilled workers that were also parents, “It (private education in Cyprus) is relatively affordable and it already exists so it is very important to maintain.”

Speaking from the investment perspective, Valov noted that investing in schools was a lengthy process, starting off with finding the appropriate land to build on. He also noted that there was also a lower return from investing in schools than there was from investing in offices or flats.

“But we do need schools, already there are no places in Paphos and Limassol and nearly no places in Larnaca and Nicosia,” he cautioned, adding this was impacting new and existing companies.

“We have had issues, particularly in the last year, when some people have come and gone because there are no schools” Valov warned.

He said investing in schools needed to be made more interesting from a tax perspective when it comes to incentives and allowance in connection to the land. An idea would be to create the infrastructure and then hand out its operation to a school operator or rent facilities to existing schools, he suggested.

Commenting on the suggestion for additional incentives, Romanyukha gave the example of Belgium, which decreased VAT on schools and made millions of euro available for the construction of new schools.

In his intervention, Andreou the Director, Pascal Private School acknowledged that there was indeed a problem with the availability of spaces at schools in Limassol, Larnaca and Paphos and that this had also begun to be a phenomenon in Nicosia and the free Famagusta district.

He suggested that expansion difficulties were mainly related to building permits and the licensing of school facilities, rather than licensing to operate a school from the Education Ministry.

“It is not only the time factor (that is an issue) but also the that the legislations’ requirements are very strict,” he said, adding that safety measures meant that laboratories for example, now needed to be far bigger than in the past.

“So in a way, we are forced to build bigger buildings, but the density we are permitted remains the same, we need some flexibility there,” he noted.

Another problem, according to Andreou, is staff issues. “For some subjects, there is already a problem,” he said, adding, “We need to discuss work permits for people from the UK, teachers who are native English speakers. We need to recruit people with experience in programmes such as A Levels.”

For Constantinides, Co-founder at Lighthouse Private School, an important question is what can be done without comprising quality.

“When it comes to expanding schools without compromising quality you have two choices, one is to take the route of 1,000-2,000 students and the other is to go small,” he suggested.

He noted that investing in a school for a minimum of 1,000 pupils would set investors back at least €10 million, making it a high-risk venture with low returns and so few incentives.

Drawing on his own experience, Constantinides said that schools should ideally be a home away from home and suggested another option could be a better fit by seeing the construction of a larger number of small, community schools in the grassroots model.

“These could be 20 or 25 schools around town (instead of one large school), built near businesses, near high rises,” he said, pointing out that it could be made mandatory for high rises housing up to 200 families to have a school nearby for the children living there.

He also suggested a change to VAT and taxes for schools, in line with the gentler VAT on other types of companies.

At this point, Andreou noted that he had witnessed a willingness for solutions on the part of the Education Ministry while Romanyukha noted that parents have also long been brainstorming about the issues.

Valov said that while the tech industry could not solve the education gap on its own, it could cooperate with schools on STEM programmes and inspire pupils to consider careers as engineers and in the IT sector, adding “We will be happy to provide job places to these children when they grow up.”

At this point, Education Minister Michaelidou noted that a road map was in place for the government's close cooperation with investors, towards facilitating education issues.

“The other important thing is closer cooperation between education and the tech sector. We can foster strong partnerships, through internships for example,” she added.

The Minister also pointed out that the Education Ministry did not interfere with the curriculum of private schools but did take steps to ensure quality was maintained.

On homeschooling, Michaelidou said that this was possible under certain conditions. However, Valov pointed out that when it came to naturalisation and immigration applications, verifications from a school was necessary, creating an obstacle if the children involved were being home-schooled.

During the panel discussion, experts also discussed the impact of AI on education and the importance of preparing pupils for an AI-heavy future.