- 2018Design
- 2019Legislative process
- 2021Implementation
- 2022Implementation
- 2023Approved/Agreed
- 2024Implementation
Background
Cyprus is reforming its education and training system. The development of a unified, valid and reliable assessment/evaluation system for primary and secondary education (including both lower and upper secondary VET) is part of this reform.
Objectives
The Integrated student evaluation system (ISES) aims to:
- give emphasis to formative assessment and to diagnose student needs in relation to specific expected outcomes;
- facilitate the necessary education interventions for improvement (based on the early diagnosis of student needs);
- test and develop alternative forms of assessment/evaluation.
Description
The Integrated student evaluation system (ISES), which includes formative assessment and diagnosis of student needs, is in place since the 2019/20 academic year. Based on the operating regulations of secondary education, semester core exams have also been implemented.
Through actions compatible with the framework of teachers' professional development on formative assessment, alternative forms of student evaluation and modern teaching methods, teachers are supported in implementing ISES.
The education ministry is engaged in a dialogue with all social partners and is recording constantly all suggestions for the improvement of ISES in the best interests of students, teachers and society.
The committee established by the Ministry of Education, Sport and Youth for the development of a new student evaluation system was tasked with formulating a policy document for implementing an integrated and unified student evaluation system, as well as submitting a specific action plan for the implementation of the proposed policy. The committee delivered its proposal in 2018, which was subsequently discussed between the Ministry and all stakeholders.
In 2019, the Parliament passed new legislation on student assessment, providing for its gradual implementation.
In 2021, ISES was implemented in primary and upper secondary education (including technical and vocational schools).
The ISES was operational and ran as regular practice.
The new Integrated Student Evaluation System supports VET attractiveness by aligning it with the modern and digitalised provision of training and skills in the following ways: the system provides real-time feedback to both students and educators, enabling a more personalised learning experience and, additionally, the system promotes transparency in the assessment process, facilitating the recognition of learning outcomes across Europe. This makes it easier for students to transfer and validate their qualifications, boosting VET's attractiveness by ensuring its relevance within the EU-wide skills framework.
The ISES emphasizes formative assessment and the diagnosis of student needs in relation to specific expected outcomes. This approach aligns with the goal of developing modularised curricula that focus on learning outcomes, particularly key competences, as outlined in the 2015-20 strategic plan for VET.
In 2023, the Parliament amended the legislation on pupil assessment, canceling the exams of the first semester.The amendment concerns the entire secondary education student population, including upper secondary education students in VET.
In 2024, the legislation was implemented under the 2023 amendment.
Bodies responsible
- Ministry of Education, Sport and Youth (MESY)
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport and Youth (MoECSY) (until 2022)
Target groups
Learners
- Learners in upper secondary, including apprentices
Education professionals
- Teachers
Thematic categories
Governance of VET and lifelong learning
This thematic category looks at existing legal frameworks providing for strategic, operational – including quality assurance – and financing arrangements for VET and lifelong learning (LLL). It examines how VET and LLL-related policies are placed in broad national socioeconomic contexts and coordinate with other strategies and policies, such as economic, social and employment, growth and innovation, recovery and resilience.
This thematic category covers partnerships and collaboration networks of VET stakeholders – especially the social partners – to shape and implement VET in a country, including looking at how their roles and responsibilities for VET at national, regional and local levels are shared and distributed, ensuring an appropriate degree of autonomy for VET providers to adapt their offer.
The thematic category also includes efforts to create national, regional and sectoral skills intelligence systems (skills anticipation and graduate tracking) and using skills intelligence for making decisions about VET and LLL on quality, inclusiveness and flexibility.
This thematic sub-category refers both to formal mechanisms of stakeholder engagement in VET governance and to informal cooperation among stakeholders, which motivate shared responsibility for quality VET. Formal engagement is usually based on legally established institutional procedures that clearly define the role and responsibilities for relevant stakeholders in designing, implementing and improving VET. It also refers to establishing and increasing the degree of autonomy of VET providers for agile and flexible VET provision.
In terms of informal cooperation, the sub-category covers targeted actions by different stakeholders to promote or implement VET. This cooperation often leads to creating sustainable partnerships and making commitments for targeted actions, in line with the national context and regulation, e.g. national alliances for apprenticeships, pacts for youth or partnerships between schools and employers. It can also include initiatives and projects run by the social partners or sectoral organisations or networks of voluntary experts and executives, retired or on sabbatical, to support their peers in the fields of VET and apprenticeships, as part of the EAfA.
Teachers, trainers and school leaders competences
Competent and motivated VET teachers in schools and trainers in companies are crucial to VET becoming innovative and relevant, agile, resilient, flexible, inclusive and lifelong.
This thematic category comprises policies and practices of initial training and continuing professional development approaches in a systemic and systematic manner. It also looks at measures aiming to update (entry) requirements and make teaching and training careers attractive and bring more young and talented individuals and business professionals into teaching and training. Supporting VET educators by equipping them with adequate competences, skills and tools for the green transition and digital teaching and learning are addressed in separate thematic sub-categories.
The measures in this category target teachers and school leaders, company trainers and mentors, adult educators and guidance practitioners.
This thematic sub-category refers to all kinds of initial and continuing professional development (CPD) for VET educators who work in vocational schools and in companies providing VET. VET educators include teachers and school leaders, trainers and company managers involved in VET, as well as adult educators and guidance practitioners – those who work in school- and work-based settings. The thematic sub-category includes national strategies, training programmes or individual courses to address the learning needs of VET educators and to develop their vocational (technical) skills, and pedagogical (teaching) skills and competences. Such programmes concern state-of-the-art vocational pedagogy, innovative teaching methods, and competences needed to address evolving teaching environments, e.g. teaching in multicultural settings, working with learners at risk of early leaving, etc.
European priorities in VET
VET Recommendation
- VET as an attractive choice based on modern and digitalised provision of training and skills
Subsystem
Further reading
Country
Type of development
Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Integrated student evaluation system (ISES): Cyprus. In Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Timeline of VET policies in Europe (2024 update) [Online tool].
https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/tools/timeline-vet-policies-europe/search/42095