A wide meeting of the Directorates of Secondary General Education and Secondary Technical and Vocational Education and Training and all Secondary Education Inspectors was held yesterday at the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth on the subject of learning frameworks, the development of teaching and the forthcoming written assessment of the first quarter. The meeting was also attended by the Minister of Education, Sports and Youth Mr. Prodromos Prodromou and the Director General of the Ministry Mr. Neophytos Papadopoulos.
During the meeting, a detailed review of the progress of teaching, particularly in the subjects under examination, with reference to the correspondence between the existing learning frameworks and the available teaching time, took place. The general finding is that teaching time is sufficient and teaching during the first term covers the learning frameworks as defined last August, in line with the Comprehensive Programme and the targeting of the predicted proficiency indicators. In some cases, where there are minor mismatches, inspections were instructed to immediately communicate to teachers and schools the individual modifications and the final formulation of the learning frameworks in advance of the written assessment in January. It was stressed that within the next few days the necessary arrangements should have been made and students and teachers should know before the break of classes for the Christmas holidays what will be included in the January written assessment.
During the meeting, views were exchanged and it was pointed out that the division of the year into two quarters facilitates and systematizes the planning of teaching. Noting that next January, for the first time, there will be written assessment in the three grades of secondary school for the first time, the need to pay special attention to the whole assessment process in secondary schools was stressed.
Relevant findings and observations were also noted and instructions were given to provide targeted guidance both to teachers on the distribution and pace of teaching and to school heads on the general planning of work.
The Minister noted that during the last two He sought views on whether in some areas there are excesses in the Analytical Programme and noted that views would be sought from public universities accordingly.
It was further reported and clarified that the first week following the holidays before the start of the written assessment, as clarified by the relevant amendment to the legislation in 2020, is reserved for revision and consolidation lessons and is not meant to be used for further teaching. Addressing the inspectors, he clarified that if there are some individual cases where teaching is not progressing according to the learning frameworks and the time available, corrective measures should be taken immediately because it is neither possible nor acceptable for some exceptions, where for one reason or another there is a delay, to affect the learning frameworks provided.
Referring in particular to the planned oral assessment, he stressed that it is no accident that it is called "oral" as opposed to the written assessment which is basically the quarterly assessment and asked the inspectorates to act in a guiding way in order for the school to adapt to this reality and to limit to the minimum necessary any written exercises of limited length and scope that are still deemed necessary. He noted, by way of example, that it is not acceptable for some subjects and prior to the quarterly written assessment to have three or sometimes more written exercises in class that ultimately resemble an examination. The purpose of introducing a summative written assessment at the end of the quarter was, he said, among other things to replace the multitude of classroom tests. Mr Prodromou concluded by saying that explicit recommendations in this regard would again be made by the Directorates of the Ministry, and that inspections would have to contribute so that all teachers would in practice make use of the alternative methods of assessment provided for in the Regulations. Recalling a legislative proposal that had been tabled in Parliament to regulate the matter through the Regulations, he urged participants to achieve the same result through instructions, pending the possible re-submission of the legislative proposal.
Subsequently, a special meeting was held on the subject of Physics in High Schools with the respective inspectorates.
IP
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