The vast majority of pupils in public primary schools who speak Greek as a second language have serious language gaps, it emerged on Wednesday.

The results come from the educational research and assessment centre of the paedagogical institute, under the auspices of the ministry of education.

According to the ministry, a key pillar of its policy for language acquisition is to ascertain the language proficiency of students for whom Greek is not their first language – usually pupils with a history of immigration.

The ministry provides targeted assessments to induct pupils into remedial programmes based on their particular needs.

For the 2023-2024 school year, the vast majority, over 91 per cent, have a proficiency level lower than the required intermediate level and are set to participate in tutoring.

A mere eight per cent of these pupils are starting the school year at the requisite minimum level of Greek language proficiency.

A total of 3,525 students attending public primary schools were evaluated for the study.

As for the final assessment of pupils who have already passed through the remedial programme, findings were obtained from 2,070 students.

Of these, around 46 per cent – less than half – had mastered the requisite intermediate level, 18 per cent were at a rudimentary level, and 35 per cent had acquired basic skills.

“Through the programme an initial diagnostic assessment is carried out, with the aim of providing effective and targeted teaching where necessary,” the education ministry said in a statement.

“Based on the results, and as expected, 91.5 per cent of these children will need to attend classes for learning Greek as a second language during the 2024-2025 school year and therefore, the necessary arrangements are being made to staff schools with the appropriate teaching staff.”

Educational and socio-demographic variables were also investigated in the course of the study to establish how these intersect and contribute to successful Greek language acquisition.

The three indicators which correlated with successful acquisition of Greek proficiency were if the child was born in Cyprus, had at least one Greek-speaking parent or guardian and was enrolled in the second half of primary school.

The research was conducted for the 2023-2024 school year through diagnostic essays administered from February to April 2024.