How to enrol a child in a state primary school in Cyprus
Checked: no change to the rule has been established since the check
In short
- Who it applies to
- Parents of a child turning 6 before 1 September, and anyone enrolling a child in a state primary school for the first time. Every child of any nationality living in Cyprus has the right to enrol — the ministry states expressly that the lawfulness of the parents' stay makes no difference.
- What it costs
- State primary schooling is free and the department charges nothing for the enrolment itself.
- How long it takes
- The school reviews electronic applications during the same days in January and replies through the system either «Προεγγεγραμμένος/η» — approved — or «Μη καταληκτικό», meaning documents are missing. Transfer applications are decided by 11 February and an answer to an objection comes no later than 31 March.
- Where to apply
- In the eΔΕΑ system, signing in with CY Login. Your home address determines the school: the system itself shows the school of your εκπαιδευτική περιφέρεια. Anyone who misses the window goes to the district education office, not to the school.
- If your case differs
- The parent profile and the child profile in eΔΕΑ are created in advance, before enrolment opens — a separate step, done once. All-day schools (Ε.Ο.Σ.) keep the child until 15:05 or 16:00 on one timetable for the whole school: if that does not suit you, the school has to be changed within the same January deadlines, not in September.
Deadlines and conditions
| Condition | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Year 1 starts at 6 full years by 1 September | The ΥΠΑΝ Primary Education Directorate: «Η φοίτηση στην Α΄ τάξη του δημοτικού σχολείου γίνεται εφόσον το παιδί έχει συμπληρώσει την ηλικία των 6 χρονών πριν από την 1η Σεπτεμβρίου». Raised from 5 years 8 months by Council of Ministers decision 84.078 of 9 January 2018, in force from the 2020-2021 school year. |
| CY Login and eΔΕΑ profiles by 31 December, before enrolment opens | The ΥΠΑΝ announcement on 2026-2027 enrolment: «οι γονείς/κηδεμόνες θα πρέπει μέχρι και την 31η Δεκεμβρίου 2025 … να δημιουργήσουν λογαριασμό στο CY Login και, στη συνέχεια, στο ηλεκτρονικό σύστημα eΔΕΑ να δημιουργήσουν το προφίλ τους, καθώς και το προφίλ του παιδιού τους». |
| for 2026-2027 enrolment opened on 5 January | The same announcement: «Οι εγγραφές για τη σχολική χρονιά 2026-2027 στα δημόσια Δημοτικά Σχολεία θα διεξαχθούν ηλεκτρονικά από τις 5 μέχρι και τις 19 Ιανουαρίου 2026». The department prints the window for each round separately; the month holds for years, the dates do not. |
| and closed on 19 January — there is no second window | The same announcement, same passage. And the caveat beside it: «Νέα περίοδος εγγραφών δεν θα υπάρξει» — there will be no second window, and no school will get extra classes beyond what January produced. |
| a transfer to another school is a separate application, by 30 January | The same announcement, section 2.3: «Οι αιτήσεις για μετεγγραφή των μαθητών/ριών όλων των τάξεων Δημοτικού πρέπει να υποβληθούν ηλεκτρονικά από τις 26 μέχρι και τις 30 Ιανουαρίου 2026» — and only after the main enrolment already carries the mark «Προεγγεγραμμένος/η». |
Your case
If the child is starting Year 1 or entering a state primary school for the first time
The CY Login and eΔΕΑ profiles are created by the end of December, the application is filed within the January window, and scans go with it: two bills proving the address, a certificate of pre-primary attendance, the vaccination card, a birth certificate or ID card or ARC, plus the other parent's consent if they have no profile of their own in the system.
If the child already attends a state primary school and is simply moving up a year
No application is needed and no documents at all: within the January window the system pre-enrols the child in the next year of the same school and notifies the parent through eΔΕΑ or by email. All the parent needs is a profile — and if there is none, it is created by the end of December like everyone else's.
If you want a school other than the one your address assigns
You still enrol at your district school first and wait for the mark «Προεγγεγραμμένος/η»; only then comes a separate transfer application at the end of January. Approval is not guaranteed and a refusal is appealed in February. A transfer once granted for kindergarten does not carry over to primary school: it has to be applied for again.
Your address picks the school, and two bills have to prove it — the first thing a newcomer trips over
What follows from this:
- two bills are needed, and these two specifically: refuse collection and electricity — the system checks your street against the map of educational districts by them
- someone who has just rented a flat usually has no refuse bill, and the department spelled out the substitutes in the announcement itself: the tenancy agreement plus the electricity bill; after a recent move, the building permit plus a recent electricity bill; in Aglantzia nobody has a refuse bill at all, so the title deed is asked for instead
- if you live with relatives and the bills are in their name, you need a copy of those plus a declaration certified by the mukhtar or the mayor stating whom you live with and since when — signed by both you and the relative
- there is exactly one exception to the address rule: an older sibling attending years Α΄–Ε΄ of the same school this year
- the pre-primary attendance certificate has to come from a kindergarten registered with ΥΠΑΝ — the announcement says «όχι Παιδοκομικό Σταθμό» in so many words: a day nursery does not count, and you find out in September, once the child is already enrolled
- ΥΠΑΝ publishes the announcement with all the dates in Greek only: the English half of gov.cy does not carry it at all
Sources
- ΥΠΑΝ, “Εγγραφές/μετεγγραφές μαθητών/ριών στα δημόσια Δημοτικά Σχολεία για τη σχολική χρονιά 2026-2027”, gov.cywww.gov.cyEvery deadline and document on this page: profiles by 31 December, the 5–19 January window, transfers 26–30 January, decisions by 11 February, objections 12–16 February answered by 31 March, the right to enrol regardless of the parents' status, and the list of attachments.
- Διεύθυνση Δημοτικής Εκπαίδευσης, the directorate's home pagewww.moec.gov.cyThe Year 1 age threshold — 6 full years by 1 September — and the schedule by which the compulsory pre-primary threshold falls beside it.
- ΥΠΑΝ, “Ηλικία Πρώτης Εγγραφής” — with a date-of-birth calculatorwww.moec.gov.cyCouncil of Ministers decision 84.078 of 9 January 2018, which raised the Year 1 threshold from 5 years 8 months to 6 years, and a form that answers, from the date of birth, which of the three stages the child falls into.