The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth, Mr. Prodromos Prodromou, after today's meeting with the leadership of the Pancyprian Confederation of Federations of Associations of Parents' Associations of Public Secondary Education Schools, in the presence of executives of the staff of the Ministry of Education and Science who are responsible for the written assessments in high schools and technical schools, made statements to journalists.
Specifically, Mr. Prodromou said: "I had a meeting today with the leadership of the Pancyprian Confederation of Associations of Public Secondary School Parents' Associations and I thank the President and his colleagues for their willingness to be here with us on a Saturday.
The purpose was to be duly and thoroughly briefed by the Directorates of the Ministry as well as by a number of education officials who have relevant responsibilities and the reason is because various opinions and a general claim have been heard that the exams this year were more difficult or that performance was lower than expected.
1. The first thing I must point out, with all due respect to organised parents - whom I thank again for their efforts and the very good cooperation we have had throughout this period and particularly in dealing with the pandemic - is that we owe similar respect to teachers and educational leadership. Because the whole preparation and organisation of the written assessment, which is now done uniformly and uniformly in all schools every four months, is the work of many dozens of reputable and experienced teachers, together with the school managements and all the teachers. It is a responsibility which they carry out as subject matter experts, conscientiously and with concern and care for the students and the quality of education. It is therefore not a task of the Minister, the Government or the General Directorate of the Ministry, but a job done with knowledge and expertise on the subject by the Directorates of the Ministry and many educational staff with dozens of years of experience and service on the subject.
2. The second is that the parents' representatives have been thoroughly informed, because we want and need to come to an understanding, since we have the same goals. We need to pass the message to our children, to the new generation:
- That it takes effort to acquire the knowledge and skills they need
- That it is worth putting effort into learning, knowledge, cultivation.
- That goods are hard-won
And that the Ministry and public schools will be there, trying to provide the necessary tools and programmes, but also to constantly improve or correct what is needed in order for our young people to achieve the desired results, which, after all, the whole of society expects.
Indeed, this is not just a "message", but a daily practice that is necessary at school and at home.
Indeed, this is not just a "message", but an everyday practice that is necessary at school and at home. It must be made clear that knowledge, education, science and critical thinking are not something that is 'given away', but something that is acquired. It is not something that can be "given", nor is there any kind of "vaccine" that automatically cultivates thinking and reasoning or instils knowledge and method (at least not yet!)
That is why it is not useful to constantly call for greater "convenience" or less effort.
3. Certainly the pandemic made it very difficult for us, and it still continues to make it difficult for all of us. All over the world, in all countries.
Adjustments are being made. We have made several, as you have seen during the two previous school years, both for the secondary schools and for the tests that were foreseen in the high schools.
But I want to assure you that in Cyprus, compared to other EU member states, it was possible and we had fewer losses, i.e. normal operation of schools this year. I can also assure you that the tests and written exams in Cyprus are no more difficult than in other countries.
4. Speaking of assessment, however, we must stress that the certification of the quality of studies, and ultimately the credibility of the Baccalaureate, depends on it. Since there have been voices that school grades affect the acceptance and admission of students to universities in some countries, I would like to assure you that indeed in some countries where Cypriots attend universities, they monitor the level of studies in our high schools and a possible absence of assessment will not favour prospective students.
5. In short, we must defend the public school as a place of knowledge and education. As a place for developing skills and introducing young people to scientific knowledge and methodology. All this requires a process of reliable evaluation. The logic of 'the customer is always right', i.e. 'we want less material' and 'we do not want exams because we are under pressure', cannot be applied to schools as if they were a commercial enterprise. Let us leave the procedures for determining the necessary knowledge and skills, as well as the methods and assessment, to the competent authorities, to experts. Let us not consider them a matter of negotiation and improvisation.
6. That is why today the organized parents were informed that:
- Large groups, dozens, experienced and reputable teachers are appointed as subjects, while the proofreaders of the essays are our teachers (and it would be good for the OELMEK to remember and defend this). That we have good educational potential in Cyprus and we should let those who are chosen among them do this job.
- Responsible in schools, but also heads of services of the Ministry are executives with decades of experience in education and specialized knowledge. It is not the Minister who defines the issues or delegates to "someone", but these are specialized agencies that have been around for years and will continue this work for years to come. It is not the business of either a Government or political figures.
- Mistakes can always be made. Perhaps things can be identified that need to be changed - as last year, together with the Confederation, we made, after study and consultation, improvements to the procedures and the Regulations.
- But for some people to want to cancel the assessment and the process of certifying the quality and level of studies because, perhaps, they want to be unpopular, that is unacceptable. And, may I say, irresponsible.
- So we must not allow them to denigrate public schools, nor should they want to degrade them by removing the credible evaluation process. For without assessment, the school cannot speak and teach values.
7. With concrete evidence, we told parents not to be carried away by aphorisms and cries that as a rule make completely inaccurate claims. Example those who, even before corrections began, spread a rumor that the results were "tragically low." Another very problematic example of underreporting is a specific as well as obsessive article with the unsubstantiated claim that allegedly victimized children who were flag bearers and now had very low yields. Especially for this purpose we also collected data from various high schools all over Cyprus showing that the children participating in the flagship (i.e. having the highest performance) were graded with approximately the same high grades as they had previously. We have data here from high schools in Nicosia and from Paphos and Paralimni. If out of the 400 or so across the country there were 3-4 who did not score well, this does not justify some people unleashing slander through writing by dissing the school and education. We will confront such cheap populism with facts.
8. On a political level, I understand that one political force, AKEL in particular, has set out to fight the evaluation process for years. They should understand that this is how they are hurting public schools. They want it inferior, without certification of knowledge and quality. It is as if they want to push young people, those who want something better, elsewhere, out of public school. It is paradoxical, but in the end with this obsession the Cypriot left, namely AKEL, seeks to weaken the public school by sending a message that parents and children should look elsewhere for assessment and quality."
IP
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