The Minister of Education, Sports and Youth, Prodromos Prodromou, informed the secretariats of the educational organizations OELMEK and OLTEK about a series of innovations that have recently been decided and should be implemented from the next school year 2023-2024, at their meeting today, in Ministry.
Mr. Prodromou reiterated his position for the four months and requested that OELMEK support the proposal of the Ministry of Defense for a clear reduction to the minimum of written exercises (competitions) in the context of the “oral assessment” which corresponds to the majority (60%) . For its part, OELMEK reiterated its position that the four-month exams create too many problems and requested that a broad meeting be convened with the involvement of all educational institutions in order to find the most correct way of evaluation that serves first of all the students.
According to an announcement by the Ministry of Education, the meeting was attended by the General Director of the Ministry of Education, Neophytos Papadopoulos and the Directors of Secondary General Education and Secondary Technical Vocational Education and Training Kyprianos Louis and Ilias Markatziis.
During the meeting Mr. Prodromou informed the representatives of the teachers about a series of innovations that have been recently decided and should be implemented from the next school year 2023-2024.
In particular, information was provided on the proposal submitted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Council of Ministers to abolish the process of purchasing services to serve the needs of the Ministry's programs and to replace them with employment contracts and to set up special committees to evaluate and possibly readjust the detailed programs. with the aim of making use of the new syllabi that have recently been prepared in Greece for the entire range of education, on the basis of an agreement made between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs of Greece, in accordance with a relevant decision of the Council of Ministers.
There was also an update on the proposal to strengthen and better adapt the procedures regarding Special Education, which will be submitted to the Council of Ministers tomorrow, with the operation of an Assessment Center and other arrangements, for the Proposal to extend the All-Day program to all cities High School for Interdisciplinary and Interdisciplinary Learning, with an emphasis on the Greek Language and S.T.E.A.M. scientific/technological applications program, for the opening of Skills Workshops in high schools from the next school year.
In addition, an update was given on the implementation of the recently passed legislation on holistic sex education across the entire spectrum of education, in order to find ways to include Sex Education Seminars in High Schools and TESEK and on the arrangements and actions that should be promoted in the case that the House of Representatives approves the bill that has been prepared for the Evaluation of the Educational Project and Teachers.
Evaluation of students
According to an announcement Ministry of Education, a special reference was made by the Minister to the new Student Assessment system that has been implemented in recent years.
Mr. Prodromou stated that with the passing of this legislation, essentially for the first time there are available uniform and reliable data on a pan-Cypriot scale for the learning results at each stage of education from the 1st grade of the Gymnasium to the end of the Lyceum and that this allows for a better supervision and guidance, as well as the appropriate adjustments for the teaching process.
He noted that from the starting point there was the knowledge, based on the long-term results of the Pancypriot Examinations, that a further effort is needed to improve the learning results.
Specifically and to examine the case of language education which is the core of education, since 2012 we knew, the Minister of Education said, that about a quarter, 24% of the students, had a performance in Modern Greek between 1 and 5.
“There may have been some progress over time, since in 2021 the corresponding low learning outcomes showed a rate of 20%. But it remains a fact that such a low performance means that a percentage of a quarter or a fifth of the young citizens who went out into society or continued at the level of university studies basically did not know our language itself”, he added.
< p>Then, he noted that with the data of the previous three school years we have a complete picture of the development of learning results in the three classes of the high school.
“In this way, it appears that also in the 1st Lyceum, 25.9% of the students had a performance in the four-month evaluation 1-7/20 (8.4% rate was 1-5/20), while in proportionally more students should be added to Technical Education. It is also indicative that the percentage with a performance of 1-7/20 reached 41.5% in a VTU, he added.
The Minister of Education indicated that from this school year they will have data for high schools.
In this way, and especially for the evaluation of the first four months, he continued, there will be an image of the learning situation of the children who came from primary schools just four months ago.
On the basis of such data and with a thorough examination, he said, it will be possible to draw conclusions and possibly make plans for the smooth transition from Primary to High School, for possible reinforcement actions in Primary Education and for better guidance and distribution of students in various VET and High School Courses, etc.
He mentioned, at the same time, that apart from the sacred obligation of the state to provide children with as much and as much as possible, there is also a question of accountability of the public school to society.
Mr. Prodromou invited the teachers to consider that, according to data collected, between 2016/17 (when the new student evaluation process was approved) and 2021/22 the number of Secondary Education teachers increased from 6,350 to 7,082, i.e. by 11.5%, while the number of of Secondary Education students decreased from 45,448 to 45,357, i.e. by 1.7%.
“In other words, for a slightly reduced number of students, the State and the tax-paying citizen financed the employment of additional teachers with many millions,” he said.
For this reason alone, he added, “it should also to carefully monitor the learning performance of the students at every step, but also to be able to give reason for a certain progress”.
“Therefore, globally and continuing with a reliable evaluation system, we should be able to see what happens to a significant percentage of children who start Secondary Education in a situation characterized by “danger of illiteracy”, but also how it develops subsequently in Secondary Education every generation of students,” he added.
Mr. Prodromou underlined that by talking about the Greek language we are referring to the core of learning outcomes which are the first goal of education.
“No, of course the unique one, since we aim to shape characters and citizens with a range of skills, but nevertheless the main one”, he noted.
He said, at the same time, that hearing, especially from the side of OELMEK, some voices for a change in the system and the adoption of a single assessment at the end of the school year, instead of two sections, in the four months, he does not see a substantial change, but rather more pressure on the students .
In any case, he said, “we should agree that there will be a reliable and fair process, which will be proportionate to the learning outcomes sought”.
“Therefore, the practical arrangements are rather a secondary issue”, he added.
For this purpose, Mr. Prodromou called on OELMEK to support the legislative proposal made by the Ministry before last summer for the reduction of the number of subjects examined in High School to two (instead of four), in case this is tabled again in the Parliament.
As he also requested that OELMEK support the proposal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for a clear reduction of the limitation to the minimum of written exercises (competitions) in the context of the “oral assessment” which corresponds to the largest part (60%).
Thus so that, he said, on the basis of the alternative assessment methods provided for in the legislation, multiple exams and unnecessary pressure on the students are avoided.
We will have a written assessment every four months, he said.
“There is no need to add another during the course”, he said and added that he would also like to see OELMEK supporting the work of the Ministry and exerting a guiding influence on its members in accordance with the common finding that there is no need for excessive written examination procedures .
Besides, the Minister reminded that the current legislation on the evaluation of students – which had happened during the voting of the support of both OELMEK and OLTEK – provides that with the completion of the implementation of the new evaluation system every four months, i.e. at the end of the current school year , an overall assessment will be made and potentially improving changes can be discussed.
He clarified that in the Directorate of Secondary Education for some time now, an Examination Quality Control Group has been created and operates with studies and scientific statistical measurements, whose work also aim at this projected valuation.
The Minister of Education informed, at the same time, about the inclusion of both Sexuality Education, in accordance with the legislation recently approved by the House of Representatives, as well as other thematic sections in the Skills Workshops that will operate.
Specific reference was made to Traffic Management and Road Safety, according to planning that will be done in the next period in collaboration with the Ministry of Transport. of Communications and Projects and the Police and in Financial Literacy in the context of the relevant National Strategy recently approved by the Council of Ministers.
In particular, regarding the inclusion of Sexuality Education in the school curriculum, he underlined that planning was done so as to affect the existing timetable as little as possible and this is possible in Primary Education and High Schools, while additional arrangements should be made for the inclusion of special Seminars in High Schools and TESEK.
It was clarified that the organization of Skills Workshops in high schools will become possible as long as the House of Representatives passes the legislative proposal to abolish the stagnation in such a way that there will be time available within the Clock Program.
On the contrary case, it was noted that the issue should be processed by the established Monitoring Committee of the Clock Program, as will be done for the inclusion of Sexual Education Seminars in High Schools and TESEK.
It was clarified that the teaching and responsibility of the workshops and seminars will be given to the teachers who until now have been responsible for teaching the respective courses, with adjustments for any additional needs or for the other thematic units.
According to the announcement, it was also informed that processes have already begun to adapt, define or complete the corresponding syllabi and prepare any necessary teaching/supervisory material by the end of the first quarter of the year, and teachers will then be trained.
The aim is to complete the processes before the start of the next school year.
The abolition of the January Central Examination was again raised by OELMEK to the Ministry of Internal Affairs
The General Secretary of OELMEK, Kostas Hatzisavvas, in his statements at the KYPE stated that during the meeting they reiterated their position, that the four-month exams create too many problems.
They also reiterated their clear position to abolish the January central exam, which creates too many problems and has not achieved any goals.
There should, he noted, be a broad meeting involving all educational institutions, who should submit their position and their proposal and find the most correct way of evaluation that serves the students first of all.
Mr. Hadjisavvas said, at the same time, that another issue they raised during the meeting concerns the curriculum of the second semester.
“Because it is a finding of the teachers of the examined courses that the material is too difficult to cover based on the available teaching time. And we asked him to immediately set dates for meetings of the OELMEK Secretariat with the respective inspectors of the examined courses”, he said.
In these meetings, he added, “the Associations of specialties of OELMEK of the examined courses and the goal is to precisely count the purely teaching time, to see the teaching material and to adapt the teaching material based on the useful purely teaching time so that they can properly carry out their teaching work and at the same time consolidate the students and not be forced to run simply to cover material”.
In conclusion, Mr. Hadjisavvas said that what they unfortunately find is that there does not seem to be any desire on the part of the Ministry of Education to hold these meetings on which OELMEK requests.
