One week before the reopening of the schools after the Christmas holidays and the eyes of the educational institutions are focused on the chapter "evaluation" and specifically, on the four-month exams. A process that concerns students of all grades of Lyceums and Technical Schools and which begins on January 14 and ends on the 28th of the same month.
OELMEK, PSEM and organized parents have long expressed their concerns in view of the exams of the first four months, mainly for the case of high school students as this year for the first time the Pancyprian Examinations are separated, with the examination system being differentiated.
Specifically, the senior students from this school year will attend the first four months and the second four months exams for the purposes of their evaluation at school and for the needs of their diploma, as well as the Pancyprian Exams at the end of the school year which will concern solely for the purpose of accessing universities Cyprus and Greece.
The fact that the examinations will be conducted in pandemic conditions and what it has brought in recent years and in Education, raises concerns, as many children are excluded from school due to coronavirus.
Η PSEM not only insists on its position to suspend the four-month exams but also a few days ago held a protest march to the President, proposing this request.
In favor of the suspension of the exams for this year only due to the conditions, is also the Pancyprian Confederation of Secondary Education Parents. Recently, with its announcement, the Confederation requested the suspension of the examinations for the XNUMXrd Lyceum and the conduct of the Pancyprian Examinations as they were done in the previous years.
At the same time, concerns are being expressed by OELMEK, which is pressuring the Ministry of Education to clarify the school year and exam schedules as well as the subject matter of the second four months depending on what teaching time.
OELMEK asks the Minister of Education to immediately appoint meetings of the Associations of specialties that have problems with the material, with the relevant inspectors, in order to clarify all the relevant issues that arise and to adapt the material within the existing teaching time. .
"Chaos will prevail"
A bell for the reopening of primary schools is ringing by its general secretary POED, Haris Charalambous, who in a post notes that "with the tragic situation that prevails in the community, due to the thousands of cases and new contacts every day, I believe that the opening of schools, or the opening of schools in the same way and conditions as closed for the Christmas holidays, would be tantamount to "suicide". I remind you that in the week that our schools closed, the cases were about 850 per day and the positivity rate was 0,8%. During this time several children and several teachers were missing, to the point that there were no replacements. Now with the prospect of increasing, we unfortunately have 5000 cases a day, a positivity rate of 6% and thousands of contacts every day. I wonder if the schools will open normally, who will replace the hundreds of teachers who will be absent and who will teach the thousands of students who will be absent, either as contacts or as cases. "How will the smooth operation of schools be ensured safely in such conditions and how will it be ensured that all children have access to education?"
philenews.com