We should strengthen the relations of the Ministry of Education with the Cyprus Institute (IKy), said on Thursday the Minister of Education, Sports and Youth (YPAN), Athina Michailidou, immediately after the end of her visit and tour of the Institute's facilities.
For his part, the President of the IKy, Stavros Malas, spoke of "the important work that is being carried out quietly at the Ministry of Education".
"We will support the work of the Institute"
After thanking the IKy for the invitation extended to her, Mrs. Michailidou mentioned that she had the opportunity to hear from the President of the Institute, Stavros Malas, and his colleagues "about the important work that the Cyprus Institute carries out both academically and in the research field".
Afterwards, the Minister emphasized that "we should strengthen the relations of the Ministry of Education with the Cyprus Institute on multiple levels, both in terms of the effort we make to improve the area of higher education in our country and in matters of school education".
Athina Michailidou underlined that "all the effort we are making to turn the tide to improve learning outcomes to make this whole shift from unnecessary knowledge to abilities, skills, critical thinking and creativity, finds many channels of communication with the Institute". As he said, "we should very specifically have them by our side, as we have discussed today and have tangible results very soon so that our children have the education they deserve".
"We will be by your side, we will support the Institute's work both as a Ministry and as a Government in order to achieve the wider goals we have as a society for a better quality of life for our children, but also for society in general", he concluded.
Malas: Mismatch in Cyprus' performance
For his part, the President of IKy, Stavros Malas, expressed his joy at the presence of the Minister of Education at the Institute, noting that "as a tertiary institution, it is our obligation to have constant contact and cooperation with the Ministry of Education".
In an organized and modern society, Mr. Malas continued, the Ministry of Education is responsible for primary and secondary education, "which produces citizens". He added that "we here, the tertiary institutions, produce the graduates and in the research part the specialized professionals and researchers of the next generation", while he expressed the belief "that the countries that see this chain in a modern way are the ones that succeed to create a robust economy".
Subsequently, the President of the IKy expressed the concern of the Institute about the mismatch that Cyprus has in terms of its performance. As he explained, "significant investments are being made in primary and secondary education and our results are not quite what we would like", noting that "much less investment is being made in higher education and especially in the research sector and our results are amazing".
"This should concern us because without innovation and research we do not create a robust society and above all we do not create a society that is properly educated", pointed out Stavros Malas.
At the same time, he spoke of "the important work that is being carried out quietly in the Ministry of Education", which - as he said - is to the honor of the Minister. As he mentioned, important steps are being taken in the right direction and we are recording them, because we think they will help evolutionarily."
Finally, he expressed the certainty that the intention of the Minister of Education is to continue these steps "so that the system of primary and secondary education becomes more modern, with more critical thinking and less memorization of knowledge, because we do not evaluate students with the their ability to remember, but with their ability to think."
Source: KYPE