Martha Kehagias
Cyprus is one of the European Union’s most generous education spenders. In 2024 it devoted 13.2 per cent of total public expenditure to education, the fifth-highest share in the bloc and well above the EU average of 9.7 per cent. As a percentage of GDP the figure stood at 5 per cent, or roughly €1.8 billion. Over the past decade the island recorded the largest increase in the education share of public spending of any EU country.
Yet the results tell a different story. Cypriot 15-year-olds continue to lag behind their European peers in the core skills that determine future opportunity.
The numbers that hurt
According to the European Commission’s Investing in Education 2026 report and the parallel Education and Training Monitor, Cyprus’s performance in the latest PISA assessments remains among the weakest in the EU:
- Mathematics: 418 points (EU average ≈ 472)
- Reading: 381 points (EU average ≈ 468)
- Science: 411 points (EU average ≈ 480)
The gaps exceed 50 points in every domain. More worrying still, Cyprus recorded some of the sharpest declines between PISA cycles: –32 points in maths, –43 in reading and –28 in science.
More than half of Cypriot students now underachieve in mathematics, a rate far higher than the EU average of around 30 per cent. At the top end of the scale the picture is equally bleak. Only 1.4 per cent of students reach advanced reading levels (EU: 6.5 per cent), 3.9 per cent in maths (EU: 7.9 per cent) and 2 per cent in science (EU: 6.9 per cent).
Digital skills among eighth-graders are also weak: 59 per cent fall below basic proficiency compared with 43 per cent across the EU. Civic knowledge scores trail the European average as well.
High tertiary rates, low relevance
Cyprus does excel in one area: tertiary educational attainment. Around 60 per cent of 25- to 34-year-olds hold a degree, one of the highest rates in the Union and well above the EU average of 44 per cent. Yet this apparent success masks deeper problems. Cyprus is one of the few countries where the employment rate of tertiary graduates is lower than that of vocational education and training (VET) graduates. STEM enrolment at university level remains stubbornly low at roughly 15 per cent, against an EU average of 27 per cent.
Early school leaving has been rising, particularly among foreign-born young people. Participation in early childhood education has improved, but capacity shortages persist and the recent extension of free compulsory pre-primary education is being phased in only gradually until 2031/32.
Money is not the problem
The contrast is stark. Cyprus pays its teachers competitively, among the best in the EU for experienced staff, and channels a larger share of public money into education than most of its peers. Nordic and several Central European systems spend similar or even lower amounts yet achieve far stronger learning outcomes. The Commission’s analysis is clear: volume of spending alone does not guarantee results. Efficiency, teaching quality, curriculum design, evaluation systems and links to the labour market matter more.
What comes next
Cyprus has launched a package of reforms in recent years: a new teacher-evaluation system, digital transformation of schools, expanded free pre-primary education, and measures aimed at reducing skills mismatches. EU recovery funds have supported several of these efforts. Whether they will reverse the long slide in basic skills remains an open question.
For a country that invests heavily in its young people, the current trajectory carries a clear risk. High spending without matching performance threatens both individual opportunity and the island’s future competitiveness in a skills-driven European economy.
With information from Investing in Education 2026 and Education and Training Monitor 2025.
