One year after the decision to extend the schooling of students with disabilities at special schools until the age of 22, parents are returning with a renewed appeal to the President of the Republic, as the temporary solution has so far not been accompanied by the permanent facilities that had been identified as the key demand. Day centres remain inadequate, special schools are under pressure with the use of prefabricated classrooms, and families continue to face the same agonising question: what happens when a child with a disability completes schooling at a special school and there is no place to receive them?
The extension of schooling was welcomed by parents, as it temporarily prevented the abrupt removal of children from their daily routine. However, parents stress that this cannot constitute a permanent response to a problem that has remained unresolved for years. “We must ensure the quality of special education. Ways must be found to support day centres and to create facilities. This is what the President of the Republic promised when he announced the extension of schooling at special schools. The responsibility lies with the state to find ways to support day centres,” said the president of the Pancyprian Federation of Associations of Parents of Children with Special Needs, Christos Avgoustinos. He clarified that the solution does not lie in further extending the length of time students remain in special schools, but in creating structures that can support them after the end of their school journey.
Funding is needed
What parents are asking for is targeted planning, strengthening of the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare and an increase in funding, so that programmes of day care, support, therapy and socialisation can be created for persons with disabilities. “Programmes are needed to occupy children who leave special schools, and for this to happen the appropriate funding must be provided by the government. The Ministry of Finance must allocate the appropriate budget to the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare so that the necessary structures can be created. However, decisions must be targeted. We need monitoring and supervisors for this to happen,” Mr Avgoustinos stressed.
He recalled that the President of the Republic had acknowledged that the extension constituted a temporary solution until a permanent one was found. “To his credit, the President granted the extension, but it is not the solution. The funds allocated for the extension should be gathered and directed to the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare so that a proper study can be carried out to see how the problem can be resolved. The children will leave and they will have nowhere to go,” he said.
Inadequate facilities
According to data from the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare, 38 Day Care Centres currently operate in Cyprus, serving exclusively the needs of persons with disabilities. These centres provide day occupation, care, therapies and educational programmes. Of the 38 centres, 30 operate on a nationwide basis with 24‑hour care and serve approximately 150 individuals. In parallel, there are 13 supported living residences.
The figures, however, do not appear to meet actual needs. As parents report, some day centres have already warned that in the coming years they will be overcrowded, while there are already children who remain at home due to the lack of available places in suitable facilities.
Within this framework, the federation has convened a nationwide conference at the end of the month, at which day centres are expected to participate, in order to record existing needs in terms of places, staffing, programmes and infrastructure.
Prefabricated classrooms added
At the same time, the situation at special schools highlights a second problem: the pressure created by increasing needs and the extension of schooling without corresponding reinforcement of infrastructure. According to the bodies involved, prefabricated classrooms have been placed in schoolyards and in the grounds of neighbouring schools in order to meet needs.
Parents make it clear that the use of prefabricated classrooms does not negate the need for the extension, but rather highlights its limits. Special schools cannot function as a permanent solution to the lack of post‑graduation structures, nor can they indefinitely absorb a problem which, as they emphasise, now falls under social policy and the support of persons with disabilities after school.
