Bilingual children attending state primary schools: Is Cyprus ready for multicultural education?

Abstract

The student population in the primary schools of the Greek-Cypriot community has for many years been homogenous, consisting nearly exclusively of Greek Orthodox children of Greek origin. During the last decade a noticeable increase has been observed in the number of other-language speaking children or bilingual children attending primary schools in Cyprus, but research on these children is very limited. The purpose of the present study is to provide island- wide information regarding the number of bilingual children attending state schools, their ethnic background, the languages spoken at home and their school performance. Furthermore, the study examines teachers' views on the behaviour of these children as well as their attitudes towards bilingualism and multicultural education in Cyprus.