Newsroom
The summer break officially ended Monday for 41,280 teenagers across Cyprus, as students returned to public secondary and technical schools for the start of the 2026-27 academic year.
Schoolyards filled up again with backpacks, reunions and first-day nerves, while parents returned to the familiar morning routine of packed lunches, last-minute searches for missing books and the traditional school-gate traffic jam.
Teachers had already been back at work since Sept. 1, giving them a short head start before classrooms filled with students.
The new term began Monday for students attending public gymnasiums, lyceums and technical schools. Primary school children still have another week of freedom, or another week for their parents to prepare—with lessons beginning Sept. 14.
The return to school also means bus schedules, after-school lessons and family timetables must once again fit together like a particularly unforgiving game of Tetris.
For drivers, meanwhile, Monday morning brought the return of heavier traffic around schools, double-parked cars and the occasional parent attempting a three-point turn where no three-point turn should ever be attempted.
Behind the first-day smiles, families are also beginning another year of school-related expenses, from stationery and uniforms to transport and private lessons.
Still, Monday belonged mainly to the students: comparing summer stories, finding their classrooms, and discovering just how quickly an early morning alarm can erase the memory of a long holiday.
