Mapping Discriminatory Landscapes in Cyprus: Ethnic Discrimination in a Divided Education System

Abstract

This paper examines the way in which the Cyprus educational system, primarily concentrating on the Greek-Cypriot side, reproduces discriminatory patterns via an outmoded and ethnically divided educational model, in spite of some efforts to introduce multi-cultural elements at local level. Existing literature and a number of studies and reports on immigrant and minority students illustrate the need for further research on the subject, so that a comprehensive reform of the educational system can take place to move from an ethnocentric model towards a more critically orientated humanistic education based on tolerance and understanding – a matter of urgency if Cyprus is to meet the challenges of a state acceding to the EU and a society, above all, that overcomes the current ethnic and nationalistic divide, be it in the form of barbed wire or ideological and mental barriers in the minds of its people.