The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth Mr. Prodromos Prodromou gave today, at the Ministry, a press conference regarding the results of the Pancyprian Examinations, which have been announced last Saturday.
Specifically, Mr. Prodromou stated: "The results of this year's Pancyprian Examinations are similar to those of other years and this can be considered particularly positive, if we take into account that the schools operated and the examinations took place in pandemic conditions.
With the extraction 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. Congratulations to all the teachers and the principals in the schools. Thanks also to the Examination Service, but special thanks to the nursing staff who assisted us in our effort at 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, ie the graduates had a performance that was not affected as much as one could imagine or expect from the great difficulties caused by the pandemic.
From the results and the discrepancies in the distribution of the marks, it seems, at first sight, that there was coherence in the subject matter and in general and in the structure of the examination papers.
1. If as a general indicator 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. Over 14/20 was the performance in English.
The 6.702 final year students 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. 18% of the candidates in Directional Mathematics and 20% in Common Body Mathematics, as well as 20% in Physics, had a similar performance, between 6 and 9,7/4,5. 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.
2. But if this is the positive side, there is also something worrying that is repeated every year. A significant portion of candidates were presented this year as well, who were practically unable to 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). Taking into account 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.
3. School results are not bad. Probably well. 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 teaching and the 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%.
4. A particular problem, however, 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 18-20.
5. It should be noted that in almost all courses with a significant number of candidates, either one third or half of the candidates are graded below the base. 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 rated from 0 to 10/20 in History.
6. No hasty or hasty conclusions are appropriate.
But two thoughts arise.
A. 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 to which they fit. The question that needs to be answered is more about participation than rating. When a significant portion of the children hand in the "white glue" at the end, it obviously turns out that they did not participate at all or may not have a good knowledge of the assessment procedures, which is also serious. But if 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 beneficially.
B. If this year's seniors who participated in the Pancyprian Examinations had an evaluation from the A 'Lyceum, with the four-month exams, they would know better about their image and their learning ability, clearly, both themselves and the school and the 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. As will be done from the school year 2021-22, where the written evaluation of four months in Lyceums and Technical Schools is generalized with the participation of the 2022rd grade / year. While from the school year 23-XNUMX we will have a written evaluation in all the classes in the Gymnasiums.
7. Finally, it should be noted here that the results of the graduates of the Technical Schools are 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.
In conclusion, I would say that, despite the weaknesses that need to be identified and addressed, the overall picture is very satisfactory, given that we have operated in a pandemic, and I say satisfactory because it is the same picture that all our previous schools have years.
I would like 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 can one try to meet what one is expected to learn in school ".