One educational psychologist for every 1,700 students.
That is the level of support currently available in Cyprus's public education system, even as referrals to the Educational Psychology Service (EPS) continue to rise year after year.
As secondary school students return to classrooms, they bring with them challenges that have not disappeared: violence, delinquency, serious emotional and learning difficulties, as well as addictive behaviours. Students, parents and teachers will once again turn to an Educational Psychology Service that has long operated with substantially fewer staff than the state itself acknowledges it needs.
The need is not new. The Ministry of Education documented it, justified it and prepared a plan for a substantial overhaul of the service. Submitted in November 2025, the proposal called for the recruitment of 60 new educational psychologists over a three-year period, with the first 20 positions planned for 2027.
Nearly a year later, however, the reinforcement remains on paper, with psychologist posts becoming the subject of negotiations between the Ministries of Education and Finance.
Finance Ministry sought cuts
As previously reported by Politis, the Ministry of Finance rejected the original request to include 20 posts in the 2027 budget, citing the significant increase in the Education Ministry's budget, which is expected to reach €1.7 billion.
According to more recent information obtained by Politis, the follow-up did not produce a solution but rather a proposal for half the positions and without additional funding.
Following pressure from the Ministry of Education, the Finance Ministry returned with a proposal to include 10 educational psychologist positions in the 2027 budget.
It made clear, however, that no additional funding would be provided and that the necessary amount would have to be found within the Education Ministry's existing budget.
The Education Ministry responded that its budget was already under pressure and that, without additional funding, there was no room even for the proposed ten posts.
The "prohibitive" amount
According to information obtained by Politis, the cost of recruiting the first 20 educational psychologists, as envisaged in the original plan, is estimated at €210,000 for 2027.
The amount represents roughly one quarter of the total annual cost of the posts because, by the time approval, advertising and recruitment procedures are completed, the full annual expenditure is not expected to be required.
That is the amount currently separating a recognised need from practical implementation.
Within a budget of €1.7 billion, the government has yet to identify €210,000 to begin strengthening a service tasked with supporting approximately 114,000 students.
What the Education Minister says
Against this backdrop, Education Minister Athena Michaelidou stated on Friday during a press conference marking the start of the school year that educational psychologist positions would be included in the 2027 budget.
She did not specify how many positions would be included, whether funding had been secured, or whether they would correspond to the 20 positions foreseen in the ministry's plan or the 10 proposed by the Finance Ministry.
The uncertainty is compounded by a written response Michaelidou provided on 24 August to AKEL MP Andreas Pasiourtides.
In that response, she stated that the proposal to upgrade the service continued to be examined within the framework of the 2028 budget.
As a result, while the original plan envisages 20 recruits beginning in 2027, the minister's public comments refer only to an unspecified number of posts, while her formal written response points to consideration of the issue in 2028.
Neither the word "under examination" constitutes approval, nor does 2028 provide any guarantee that the reform will begin then.
One psychologist for 1,700 students
The figures illustrate the scale of the shortfall.
The Educational Psychology Service currently employs 71 psychologists, consisting of:
- 47 permanent staff
- 19 staff on indefinite contracts
- 5 staff on fixed-term contracts
The five fixed-term psychologists were recruited in 2026 after the employment ceiling was increased from 66 to 71 posts.
However, as the minister herself noted, the figure of 71 does not fully reflect the number available for the general student population.
Taking into account partial allocations covering special schools, the Educational Psychology Service itself and the Pedagogical Institute, the effective staffing level serving approximately 114,000 students amounts to 67 psychologists.
That means there is currently one psychologist for every 1,700 students, compared with one for every 1,850 previously.
The improvement is modest relative to the scale of need.
43,000 calls for support
Referrals are not merely numbers in a statistical table. Behind each one is a child facing difficulties serious enough to require specialist intervention.
Data show that referrals exceeded 43,000 over a five-year period, following a steadily upward trend:
- 7,229 referrals in 2019-2020
- 8,480 referrals in 2021-2022
- 9,316 referrals in 2022-2023
- 10,598 referrals in 2023-2024
Over five years, referrals increased by approximately 47%.
During the 2023-2024 school year alone:
- 1,176 students, or 11.1% of referrals, were referred for issues related to violence and behavioural difficulties.
- 941 students, or 9% of referrals, were dealing with serious emotional challenges, including depression, anxiety disorders and traumatic experiences.
Adding to this are new forms of dependency entering schools.
The Ministry of Education has already identified cases in which students required referral to educational psychologists because of severe dependence on mobile phones.
At the same time, 1,282 secondary school students received counselling interventions during the 2023-2024 academic year for addictive behaviours involving:
- Alcohol
- Smoking
- Illegal substances
- Problem gambling
Of these, 37 students were referred to specialised treatment programmes.
Thirty to forty violence-related cases per psychologist
Educational psychologists do far more than conduct individual assessments.
They intervene when schools face crises, participate in rapid response teams and contribute to the prevention and management of violence, bullying and delinquency.
They also support teachers who work daily with children facing complex challenges but who do not possess the specialised training or tools needed to address them alone.
Their responsibilities include:
- Training school staff and parents
- Organising experiential workshops
- Helping schools identify concerning behaviours at an early stage
Each educational psychologist is required to handle approximately 30 to 40 cases of violent or delinquent behaviour every year, in addition to all other assessments and interventions they undertake.
