Students themselves are recording a reality that is causing serious concern: Nazi salutes performed in schools, far-right symbols appearing within school premises, and a pattern of behaviour that the young parliamentarians say cannot be dismissed as isolated incidents or mere adolescent misconduct. Through the report of the 8th Youth Parliament, student representatives speak openly about the emergence of extreme ideological behaviour in schools, arguing that the phenomenon has become part of everyday school life and can no longer be treated as fringe.
The concern is not theoretical. The report cites specific incidents that have entered the public record and which, in the students' assessment, demonstrate the presence of such behaviour within schools. Among them is an incident involving Nazi salutes at a school in Famagusta district in April 2025. "These examples are indications that forms of misconduct with a clear ideological dimension are now appearing within the school environment," the report states.
Beyond isolated incidents
The student parliamentarians are insistent that such behaviour does not arise in a vacuum. They situate it within a broader framework of school violence and misconduct that has preoccupied the educational community in recent years, noting that the same report addresses bullying, cyberbullying and online violence as phenomena that sustain an environment of aggression, impunity and tension within daily school life. Within that context, extreme ideological expressions do not appear as something foreign to the problem but as a possible extension of a climate that has already normalised violence, exclusion and hostility toward the other.
The report stops short of drawing an automatic line from bullying to extremism. The connection the young parliamentarians make is nonetheless clear. They argue that when schools fail to adequately cultivate respect, empathy and democratic culture, a vacuum is created, one that can be filled by reductive, aggressive or extreme narratives finding their way in through peer groups, the internet and social media.
A deficit of democratic education
The most significant element of the report is not merely the cataloguing of incidents but the interpretation the students themselves offer. Incidents such as the Nazi salutes, they write, "demonstrate the existence of an inadequate democratic education and an inadequate cultivation of respect for diversity." They also refer to "deeper social pathologies," signalling that the problem is not confined to schools but reflects broader trends within society. In doing so, the students are not simply describing an educational failure but a wider deficit in civic and political formation.
This reading explains why the issue cannot be resolved through disciplinary management alone. The young parliamentarians argue that the response cannot begin and end with reporting an incident or punishing those involved. What is required, they say, is deeper intervention in how schools teach democracy, coexistence, participation and respect for difference.
The case for reinstating Civic Education
Central to their proposals is the reinstatement of Civic Education as a standalone subject on the school curriculum. The report notes that the subject was removed from the official timetable in the 2015 to 2016 academic year, ceasing to exist as an independent class and being reduced instead to a supplement within other subjects. The official justification at the time, according to the report, was that Civic Education should not be a separate subject but a lived experience and way of life cultivated horizontally across all subjects and through school culture, with concepts such as citizenship and democracy embedded in activities like student councils and volunteering. The young parliamentarians, however, conclude that this approach has not delivered the results needed.
The reinstatement of Civic Education is described in the report as "an urgent necessity," on the grounds that it can serve as a tool for understanding how institutions function, for cultivating democratic consciousness and responsibility, and for promoting healthy dialogue and respectful engagement with opposing views. The students emphasise that the need is immediate for the school community specifically, because school is the first social collective a person enters.
Their recommendations to the Ministry of Education go further. The report also calls for the institutionalisation of a written reflection process as an additional form of accountability for incidents of school violence, a compulsory intercultural inclusion and experiential education programme, teacher evaluation through the new assessment system, and strengthened training, lifelong learning and innovation in teaching practice.