The referral of the Primary and Secondary Education (Compulsory Attendance and Free Education) Law of 1993 to 2022 was mainly because the Parliament had added to the bill the manifestly unconstitutional provision that: "From the school year 2026-2027, children in compulsory pre-primary education shall attend public kindergartens in their educational district."
It is understandable that such a thing, i.e. an imperative obligation to attend public schools, does not apply in the Republic of Cyprus at any of the levels of education and cannot be introduced by law specifically for pre-primary education. The unconstitutionality lies in the exclusion of attendance other than in a public school, i.e. the restriction of choice by parents/guardians.
This issue was not even commented on in today's plenary session and the rejection of the referral, except for the intervention of the Deputy President of DISY, who correctly placed the issue.
Such a provision as that contained in the Act as amended by the House, which makes imperative reference to attendance at public schools, was never accepted by the Minister, the Ministry of Education or the Government.
On the contrary, the Ministry had pointed out to the parliamentary committee that it would not be possible to accommodate something that is unfeasible, such as the desire to create building infrastructure and facilities within two years, merely by a legislative provision and that the obligation from 2026-2027 "to attend public kindergartens", in addition to being unconstitutional, would also run up against the impossibility of its implementation at that time. Because both the State Budget for 2023 and the Medium Term Financial Framework have already been approved by the Parliament and are data, with no provisions for what the Parliament wants to legislate.
With today's decision of the Parliament, there is no way to achieve attendance in public kindergartens. The result is that children of the ages to which this legislation applies will continue as before to attend either private education or public kindergartens, where, however, as currently provided and in force, they pay tuition fees.
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