The results of this year's Pancyprian Examinations are similar to those of other years and this can be considered particularly positive, given that the schools operated and the examinations took place in pandemic conditions, said the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth, Prodromos Prodromou. Speaking at a press conference on Monday regarding the results of the Pancyprian Examinations, which were announced on Saturday.
Mr. Prodromou said that with the export and announcement of the results “we must congratulate 7,155 high school students who attended the exams, as well as all the teachers who participated in the processes of the Pancyprians”.
“I also congratulate all the teachers and the administrations in the schools. Thanks also to the Examination Service, but special thanks to the nursing staff who assisted our effort in the Special Examination Centers we had this year, allowing all candidates to participate. “The results show, in general, that with hard work and seriousness the candidates, that is, the seniors, had a performance that was not affected as much as one could imagine or expect from the great difficulties caused by the pandemic”, he added.
Mr. Prodromou said that from the results and the discrepancies in the distribution of the scores, it seems, at first sight, that there was coherence in the subject matter and in general in the structure of the examination essays.
“If the general index is considered the score in Modern Greek, it was like last year, as every year, about 10 out of 20. In Directional Mathematics the scores were around 9 out of 20 and in Common Body Mathematics slightly higher. “The performance in English was over 14/20”, he noted.
The 6,702 final year students, continued the Minister of Education, wrote in Modern Greek an average of 10.2.
“Among them there was a percentage of 1% who excelled with a score of 18-20. 6% of the candidates in Directional Mathematics and 9.7% in Common Body Mathematics, as well as 4.5% in Physics, had a similar performance, between 18 and 20/20. “Excellent performance, between 18 and 20, had 25.3% of the candidates in English, 15.6% in Biology, 21% in Chemistry and 8.7% in Economics”, he added.
As Mr. Prodromou said, “but if this is the positive side, there is something worrying that is repeated every year. This year, a significant portion of candidates were presented who could not participate in the examination. There were 453 candidates (ie 6.3% of the total) who essentially gave “white glue” to Modern Greek (score 0.1 or 2/20) “.
“Calculating this loss, the average score in Modern Greek was 9.6 / 20 instead of 10.2 / 20. The biggest loss is in Mathematics, where 12.6% of the candidates could not participate in the writing (they had a score of 0.1 or 2/20). The corresponding percentages, which show that there are children who do not participate effectively in the assessment process, were 21.7% in Common Body Mathematics, 27% in Economics, 10.6% in Chemistry and Physics, 11.6% in Biology. ο.κ. “This issue should be discussed in detail, the causes should be sought and ways of treatment should be found”, he added.
The Minister of Education said that the results of the schools are not bad.
“It simply came to our notice then. This is confirmed where an effort is made and the students follow. However, there seems to be a portion of students who do not actually participate in the teaching and school process. This should be of serious concern to us. In this year's exams it appeared that 20% of the candidates were scored between 0 and 5 out of 20 in Modern Greek. 36.4% of the students in the Directional Mathematics and 35.7% in the Common Body Mathematics had the same very low performance. In Physics 31.1%, in Chemistry 21.3%, in Biology 23.7% and in Informatics 20.6% “, he noted.
Mr. Prodromou said that a particular problem seems to exist in History and Economics.
“In History the average was only 7.4 / 20 and in Economics 7.9 / 20. 44.7% of the candidates were graded from 0 to 5/20 in Finance and 40.6% of the candidates in History had such a low grade. It is indicative that only one candidate in Cyprus, out of 1,126 candidates who attended the history course, was graded with 18-20 “, he added.
It should be noted, said the Minister of Education, that in almost all courses with a significant number of candidates, either one third or half of the candidates are graded below the base.
“A percentage of 50.1% in Modern Greek and 58.0% in Common Body Mathematics were graded from 0 to 10/20. The corresponding percentage is 62.5% in Directional Mathematics. In Physics it is 57.4%, in Biology 40.3%, in Chemistry 34.7%. In Informatics 32.4%. It should really cause concern that 69.7% were scored from 0 to 10/20 in history “, he added.
He said, at the same time, that hasty or hasty conclusions are not appropriate.
As he said, however, two thoughts arise.
He said the first thought is that it should not be the performance itself that matters, as numbers, but the question of whether some children, a significant number of students, are in those school curricula that suit them.
“The question that needs to be answered is more about the participation than the score. When a significant portion of children hand in “white glue” at the end, it obviously turns out that they have hardly participated at all or may not have a good knowledge of the assessment procedures, which is also serious. But since they did not participate, it turns out that they did not benefit from attending. “So we have to see if there is anything else and what is it in which they could participate profitably,” he added.
The second thought, he said, is that if this year's seniors who participated in the Pancyprian Examinations had an evaluation from the 1st Lyceum, with the four-month exams, they would know better about their image and their learning ability, clearly, and the themselves and the school and their teachers (including of course the parents), since then, two and a half school years ago.
“That is why it is very important to have a reliable evaluation system”, noted Mr. Prodromou.
As he added, “it will be done from the school year 2021-22, when the written evaluation of four months in Lyceums and Technical Schools is generalized with the participation of the 3rd grade / year. While from the school year 2022-23 we will have a written evaluation in all classes in the Gymnasiums “.
“It should be noted here that the results of the graduates of the Technical Schools are also quite worrying. Overall, the performance is poor and in some courses it seems that a sufficient number of students do not attend the learning process and have not benefited. “There should be a separate discussion for the history lesson”, he noted.
The Minister of Education said that despite the weaknesses that need to be identified and addressed, the overall picture is very satisfactory, “given that we operated in a pandemic, and I say satisfactory because it is the same picture that our schools have all previous years “.
“I want to congratulate again all the children for their efforts, the teachers, all the staff of the Ministry for the organization of the exams and of course we must especially congratulate those children who, as noted, have achieved very important performance, proving “that one can try to respond to what is expected to be learned in school”, he added.
Answering a question, Mr. Prodromou said that they are satisfactory because they are the same as in normal years.
“The pandemic has affected our whole life in all areas. It has affected the psychological state of people. The children had done much of the distance learning. The results show that the pandemic did not affect. Why the results are satisfactory is simple. It is because it is the image that we have in our school system two, three and four years ago. “What needs to be improved is what we have to say, studying the results.”
Mr. Prodromou stated, at the same time, that it is not very useful “to discuss the averages” and added that there is a portion of children, who actually go to the exams but do not participate in the exam.
“In Nea Ellinika, more than 400 children were given white glue,” he noted.
Asked if any suggestion has been submitted to the Ministry of Education so that the students under examination can pass, Mr. Prodromou said that a public proposal has been made by the President of DISY, due to the pandemic, especially this year, that there should be no stagnation in performance.
“I want to remind you that in the Gymnasiums from the beginning it was decided that there will be no stagnation due to performance. For the Lyceums, there was no same decision because there were exams. During these hours the examinations take place. “When this cycle is completed, we will see it definitively in the coming days,” he concluded.
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