Education Minister Athena Michaelidou on Friday asked the House finance committee to approve a five-per-cent increase to her ministry’s budget, which, if approved, will amount to just shy of €1.7 billion next year.

“Through a coherent reform plan, we are seeking to free the education system from the logic of fragmented actions and are working towards a holistic framework, adopting a new culture of adequacy and efficiency,” she told the committee.

She added that her ministry’s budget “serves this strategy precisely”, and is “a tool for implementing our reform policy, with clear priorities, targeted investments, scientific documentation, and continuous evaluation”.

In this budget, she said, a total of €53 million has been allocated to school infrastructure, an increase of €10 million on this year’s budget, with her ministry “planning upgrades to school facilities and the implementation of 23 large-scale projects”.

Additionally, she said the ministry is planning to implement a free breakfast programme for children, and that social workers will be deployed to schools with “high rates of delinquency” so as to “support pupils and families”.

House education committee chairman and Diko MP Chrysanthos Savvides then lamented that “almost 90 per cent of the budget is allocated for teacher salaries”.

He also criticised that “no government has put in place a plan for the creation of school classrooms or school buildings”, and said that because of this, schools are “overcrowded” and “overpopulated”.

On this matter, he said that the rollout of portakabins to be used as classrooms is “a huge problem in the European Cyprus of 2026”.

Workers in the support programmes of the education ministry will begin an indefinite strike on Monday, after unions cited many colleagues have gone five months without pay.

Trade unions SEK and PEO said the ministry has still not fully implemented legislation passed by the House on April 21 which regulates employment in specific programmes.

According to the unions, the law sets out staffing procedures, but these are not applied to every programme, which has left a number of workers without a job.

They also claim that posts meant for fixed-term staff are being filled by employees already on the permanent roll, who work overtime to cover them.

The unions further accused the government of repeatedly postponing a political decision on paying employees whose contracts have not been terminated.

They said the delay has left these workers with no income and no right to unemployment benefit.

“Workers remain unpaid for five months,” the unions said, describing the situation as the result of “continuous postponements” by the government.

The strike marks an escalation of measures the workers have taken over the unresolved labour issues, with a protest march planned for next Thursday, starting at the finance ministry and heading towards the presidential palace.

The unions have called on workers to turn out in large numbers for both the strike and the march, and have insisted action would continue until “substantive solutions” are provided to the problems they have raised.