The right to sit for the Pancyprian Examinations will be given to senior unexamined students, as reported on Monday before the Parliamentary Committee on Education.
It was noted that those who, for reasons of absenteeism, do not meet the necessary attendance at schools are excluded from this right.
In another development, the Education Committee unanimously passed a proposal to include students and graduates of the Kato Pyrgos High School in the 10% of the beneficiaries along with graduates of the Technical Schools - surplus places for specific University Schools and Departments.
The Parliamentary Committee on Education and Culture held an extraordinary session on Monday to discuss the bill "The Law of 2022 on the Conduct of the Pancyprian Access Examinations to Higher and Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) of Cyprus and Greece (Amendment)" (File No. 23.01.063.072-2022).
The Committee of Education, in accordance with Rule 40A of the House of Representatives, studied the above bill as a matter of priority, the purpose of which is to amend the Law on the Conduct of the Pancyprian Entrance Examinations to Higher and Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) of Cyprus and Greece, in order to harmonise the existing legislation with the Regulations on the Operation of Public Secondary Education Schools, to ensure the smooth operation of secondary education schools, as well as to make it possible to conduct the Pancyprian Entrance Examinations in June 2022.
The committee decided to refer the bill to the plenary session of the House next Thursday for a final decision.
In a statement after the committee's meeting, the Chairman of the House Education Committee, Pavlos Mylonas, said that they were pleased to conclude the debate on the Pancyprian Examinations today.
[/P]He said that the unexamined will also have the right to attend the school exams, so that they will have the right to sit for the Pancyprian exams.
Exceptions, continued Mr. Mylonas, are those who for reasons of absence do not meet the necessary attendance at schools.
"The second point I want to say and it is with great pleasure that the Committee after many efforts we managed unanimously to pass a proposal for the support of our border region of Tilliria, so that the few children who are left in this isolated region have the support of the public and the Universities during the Pancyprian Examinations, in order to facilitate their access to public universities," he noted.
In response to a question, Mylonas said there are very few children attending there.
"There are three, four to 11 students in different classes. I have visited Tilliria many times with my Commission colleagues. We will give them the opportunity that the students of the technical schools have so that they can be graded and have an extra grade to occupy from the overflow places" in the public universities without affecting anyone else. It is something that has been a constant demand of the people of the area and of course the state has responded thinking of the public good and the interest of the country. It is an area that to leave Nicosia, if you go through the occupied territories it is 1.5 hours, if you go through other areas it is 2.5 to 3 hours," he added. Mylonas, "when I went there last time, a father was telling me in such a dramatic tone that he needs to leave after school, around 2 o'clock from Tilliria Tower to go to Paphos or Nicosia, take your pick, to return at 9,10 in the evening with his child from the tutorials."
"Well, we did something good," he added.
Asked by the Cyprus News Agency whether this issue will also be brought to the plenary session on Thursday, Mr. Mylonas replied in the affirmative, saying that it will go to the plenary session on Thursday along with the issue of the Pancyprian Examinations and the unexamined.
Mr. Mylonas also said that the high schools had been given a one-week date to sit exams in six subjects and at the urging of DIKO MP Chrysanthos Savvidis, the Director of Secondary Education, Kyprianos Louis, said that two more days would be given so that high school students would not be under such pressure during the May exams.
DISY MP Giorgos Karoullas said in a statement that today in the Education Committee they completed the discussion of changes to the law on the conduct and administration of the Pancyprian Access Examinations, so that this law is fully harmonized with the regulations of the operation of secondary schools, due to the implementation in the third grade, this year for the first time, of quarterly examinations.
"This, which was agreed in the Committee and with the Ministry of Education, which we thank for its continuous cooperation and foresight, is so that children who have absences beyond the prescribed number, i.e. 135 absences from their regular attendance, will be excluded from the right to sit the exams, while the rest of the children who are behind in their studies will have the right to sit the Pancyprian Access Examinations," he added.
He also said that today the Education Committee agreed and came to a unanimous conclusion regarding the concession of the right of children from the Kato Pyrgos Tilliria secondary school and high school, i.e. the graduates of this high school, to be able to apply for places in public universities, as supernumeraries on the basis of the regular, special criteria logic.
"It is a hard, a remote area where the population must be revitalized and not left in decline, as we take into account the relevant quantitative data. This year's high school graduates are 11 kids , while next year there will only be four. Therefore, the number in the coming years, based on the data presented to the Commission, will be around 10 pupils per year. So, the graduates of the Lower Tower Tilliria High School will have this right on the basis of performance in examinations and the right to be included in the list of special criteria, on a merit basis to be able to have a place as supernumeraries in public universities," he noted.
AKEL MP Christos Christofides said in a statement that the change to be made to the legislation is going to the plenary session on Thursday, "so that we can normally hold the entrance and final exams this year, which for the first time in several years will be double".
"The first thing I must note is that while there was a decision at the beginning of the year on the part of the Ministry of Education for this development, unfortunately we were left at the last minute and we are running to fill a legislative gap so that everything can be conducted as it should be. The second thing I want to say is this: That as we had said from the very first moment and made it clear, it is not possible, as the Ministry of Education wanted, to exclude unexamined students from the entrance exams, who will be judged a few days after the entrance exams whether they will get a diploma or not."
The majority of the Committee, he continued. Christofides, "and I think the majority of the Parliament has taken a position."
"These children should be given the opportunity to take the entrance exams and if they get their school-leaving certificate in the normal way, they can get the place they might secure in a public university in Cyprus or Greece," he noted.
The third point, said Mr.Christofides, "is that these children should be given the opportunity to take the entrance exams and if they get their school-leaving certificate in the normal way, they can get the place they might secure in a public university in Cyprus or Greece."
The third point, said Mr. Christofides, "is the will again, I think unanimously, of the Committee of Education to implement what we had said many times in our repeated visits to the communities of the martyred Tower of Tilliria that incentives will be given to the children of these areas, so that this isolation which many have been experiencing for decades, we will try to balance it with a mark for these children in the entrance exams."
"Where we have added to the category of graduates of the Technical Schools, who are entitled to a number of seats and the category of graduates from the high school, high school of Tilliria Tower. We believe that the way the majority of the House Education Committee has formulated the bill is satisfactory and solves serious issues and at the same time opens up avenues," he added.
Asked that the pressures seem to have worked in relation to the unexamined, Mr. Christofides said that "we had said from the very first moment that the deprivation of tens and possibly hundreds of places in universities by these children and I say possibly and hundreds of places, because with all this situation this year around the quarters unfortunately expected a significant increase in the number of unexamined students in the third grade, would not pass and will not pass from what clearly appears."
DPA-Cooperation MP Alekos Tryfonides, in a statement said that today in the extraordinary Parliamentary Committee on Education and Culture the debate on the amendment of the bill on the Pancyprian and entrance examinations was completed.
He noted that the purpose of the bill is to ensure the smooth operation of schools to enable the holding of the Pancyprian examinations in June 2022.
This bill, he said. Tryfonides, provides for setting the start date of the Access Examinations immediately after the completion of the Baccalaureate examinations, granting all third grade students, who do not remain stagnant due to absences, the right to participate in the Pancyprian Access Examinations.
"As far as the unexamined students are concerned, they will have the right to participate in the exams but if they fail to obtain a school-leaving certificate they will not be able to claim a place in the public AEI," he noted.
This bill, Mr. Tryfonides, provides for the abolition of the Control Committee and the creation of one Subject Committee instead of two for each examined subject and the competent authority will be given the possibility to revise the Guide to the Pancyprian Access Examinations after January 31.
"I consider a great achievement for the entire enclosed and marginal region of Tylliria, the adoption in the bill of my own proposal to include the students and graduates of Kato Pyrgos High School in the 10% of the beneficiaries (along with the graduates of the Technical Schools) of supernumerary places for specific University Schools and Departments," he concluded.
Source: CNA
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