In what is being considered an interesting new development for Cyprus, it has been observed that almost all pupils in the island country are learning a foreign language.
According the findings of a survey conducted by Eurostat, the Directorate-General of the European Commission, all the primary school pupils and 98 percent gymnasium pupils in Cyprus are learning at least one foreign language in the classroom, in addition to learning their native language.
The survey, which was conducted in 2015, further found that among the primary school pupils, 91.2 percent were learning one foreign language, while the remaining 8.2 percent were learning two or more.
Among the foreign languages learnt, English was the most popular (with 99.8 percent of the pupils learning them), followed by French (which is being learnt by 2.3 percent of the students)
Eurostat conducted the survey throughout Europe, and the findings showed some significant and interesting developments in terms of language learning.
According to the findings, 84 percent primary school pupils all over the European Union Member States were being taught at least one foreign language, while 5 percent taught two or more foreign languages.
Unsurprisingly, English has proved to be the most popular language in the EU, being studied by 83.5 percent of all primary school pupils across all member states. French, once again follows (with 4.8 per cent students learning the language). Close on its heels is German (3.9 per cent), Spanish (0.6 per cent), Russian (0.3 per cent) and Italian (0.2 per cent).
Cyprus was not the only country to gain a perfect score as far as the percentage of primary school pupils learning a foreign language is concerned. Austria, Luxembourg, and Malta too boasted the same score. Croatia, Spain and France stays close to this score at 99.9, 99.4 and 99.2 per cent respectively.
Eurostat’s survey also found that learning foreign languages is quite commonplace at the lower secondary level. In fact, more than 98.6 percent of secondary school pupils have been found to study at least one foreign language, while 58.8 per cent were seen to study two or more foreign languages.
As of 2015, 98% of the 27,100 lower secondary level pupils in Cyprus have studied and successfully learnt at least one foreign language.
