Extending the age limit for special education from 21 to 22 is not a solution in itself, chairman of the House education committee MP Pavlos Mylonas said on Friday.

Mylonas, who visited the Evangelismos special school in Yeri on Friday morning, welcomed President Nikos Christodoulides’ gesture to raise the age limit. However, he stressed that a political decision to create care structures for adults with special needs was urgently required.

The parliamentary committee members visited Evangelismos as part of a series of visits to public special schools across the island, aimed at assessing their needs and discussing challenges with staff and parents.

Mylonas warned that extending the age limit would place additional strain on existing facilities and reduce available places for new students.

“When we offer ten places to students staying on, we take away ten from those just entering the system,” he explained.

Evangelismos provides educational and therapeutic programmes to support the holistic development of each student in a safe, inclusive environment that promotes social integration and access to services.

“The special schools are already overpopulated,” Mylonas said, noting that Evangelismos currently has 86 students enrolled, with another ten expected in the upcoming academic year. The school accepts children from preschool age up to 21.

The real solution, he said, is to establish dedicated facilities for people over the age of 21, where they can receive proper, long-term care.

The head of the parents’ association at Evangelismos, Georgia Stavrou, and Yeri deputy mayor Neophytos Papalazarou — who accompanied the MPs on their visit — both said that the creation of a facility for older students has been a long-standing demand.

So far, they said, there has been no official response from the state.

Mylonas agreed that “this would be an investment”, but added that “we need money to invest, so hic Rhodus, hic salta.”

Parents, he said, live with constant anxiety about what will happen to their children once they are no longer around to care for them.

Currently, Evangelismos employs 80 people of various specialisations, to offer ergotherapy, speech therapy and a series of other programmes.

In addition to Cypriot students, the school also supports children from Syria, Somalia, Romania, and other countries.

During the visit, the children and their teachers put on a performance in the schoolyard and presented handmade crafts as part of their curriculum.

On Wednesday, President Christodoulides announced that “all children in special education who were eligible to stay until the age of 21 can now remain until the age of 22, until we secure positions for them in dignified structures.”

He added that discussions with the private sector are currently underway to help achieve this goal.