The organization also expresses its consent to the relocation of the examinations as well as the acceleration of the start of the courses.
Regarding the dismissal, access and four-month exams, the main reservations concern issues related to the integrity and whether all students will be properly prepared, as teaching varies from school to school and from teacher to teacher.
More specifically, the letter to the minister states the following:
● Start of school year: Parents agree with the start of classes earlier in September, hoping that with this move, more useful time will be given to the education and preparation of students.
● Examinations: They agree with the postponement of the examinations from September to now, at the end of June. They believe that this measure will have multiple benefits: (a) Children will receive remedial teaching at their own school and while everything is still fresh in their minds. (b) Supportive teaching will relieve parents of the cost of preparing for exams, which so far is done with private lessons. (c) Children will be able to enjoy the summer holidays free from the stress of the upcoming exams.
Parents express the belief that the fortnightly supportive teaching offered by teachers to their children, will be properly structured so as to identify students' weaknesses in order to be able to cope with their exams. They refer to the relevant report, based on which the exams will have a formative character, in order to identify the weaknesses of each student.
In order to implement the above proposals, they request and expect that by the beginning of September all schools will be ready and fully staffed. As they characteristically note, the movements and permutations that were observed, even until November, must disappear.
● Separation of Pancyprian Examinations into dismissal exams and access exams: They typically note that "as an idea it is correct, because unfortunately the educational system in recent years has failed to combine the two exams (dismissal - access) into one, resulting in huge problems." However, they set specific conditions for consenting to the separation.
First, they emphasize the need for training and evaluation of facilitators and correctors before taking office.
For the Pancyprian Access Examinations (CIP), they point out that the key point is the inviolability. That is why they express concerns regarding the provision of the plan for the creation of a primary and secondary committee of topics.
In the letter to the minister, the parents note: "We are concerned that the involvement of many people in this process may jeopardize the integrity of the exams. We are also not satisfied with the clarification given for the software that may be used. Software, technically speaking, can be a solution to the problem. However, its operation involves many factors that may call into question the inviolability of the examinations ".
They express similar concerns about the integrity of the Pancyprian Dismissal Examinations, while at the same time they do not hide their concerns about whether all children are ready to attend this kind of uniform examinations. And this is because “in every school there is a different level. We are also very well aware of the many problems in the field of teachers that one teaches A and the other B ".
Prerequisites for the four-month exams
Regarding the introduction of exams every four months, the organized parents raise the following requests and concerns to Costas Kadis:
● The material of each four-month period must be strictly predetermined.
. We are concerned if all the children in all the schools will be ready to take these exams. That is, if the teacher has managed to cover the predetermined material. And if not, what happens then? It frightens us because you know very well that not all teachers respond.
Ενισ Supportive teaching, after the completion of the first four months, will be done for students who have disabilities. What will the other students do during these 15 days?
● The four-month grade will be based on a number of proposed assessments. Really if our education system gets to the point of evaluating students through the ways you suggest, we organized parents agree on everything. However, we have the right to doubt the effective and universal implementation of the evaluations proposed.
Εξετά The exams of the first four months should not be done after Christmas.
Do not make students experimental animals
The parents' letter to the Minister of Education closes with the following eight conclusions:
1. The proposal shows the nakedness of our educational system so far.
2. The impression of sloppiness and haste is created.
3. With the implementation of the proposal, a central examination system is created.
4. Necessarily, in order to have a consensus on the proposal, there must first be proper training, proper and effective evaluation and then it must be implemented. It is not right for our children to become guinea pigs once again. At least once, let's get started.
5. The cycle of the Unified Lyceum should be closed properly. So any changes should be implemented in 2017 - 2018. This will give sufficient time to prepare to implement all of the above.
6. The integrity of the examinations must be ensured.
7. The subject of the examined courses in Technical Education should be clarified, when the students are less than 50.
8. We consider the students' point of view to be very important.
Source: Liberal