Education Minister Athena Michaelidou on Monday stressed that the Pancyprian examinations are not “the end” for children taking them, but a new beginning, as she visited a high school in Nicosia to mark the beginning of exam season.

“We’re simply conveying the message that this isn’t the end — it’s the beginning for the children,” she said, before adding that “there are so many options; it’s just one step in their future lives, in their future journey”.

She went on to say that around 5,300 children will be taking this year’s Pancyprian examinations, of whom 600 will be taking them in “special conditions”.

Once the examinations are complete, she said, “there will be the well-known process” of allocating university places in July.

Asked about the government’s plans to reform special needs education, she said that such a reform is “long overdue”, with the most recent changes to the system having been enacted in 1999, and that “many children and their parents … have been suffering for decades in our system”.

“These are the changes which are signalled by the transition to a child-centred education, that is, to the needs of each child, to the fact that we also give a voice to parents, and to improving our internal processes in special education,” she said.

She closed her remarks by saying that “we believe that our children are the future of this place and that is why any investment in education is worth it”.