Ministry outlines how students to be assessed this school year

Students sitting exams at the end of the school year will be questioned on 60 per cent of the material taught in public schools, a new education ministry proposal released on Tuesday said.

The announcement comes after long-standing complaints over the extensive curriculum content under the twice-yearly exams, something which the new government pledged to change.

The twice-yearly exam in the second semester of the 2022-2023 will also correspond to 20 per cent of the student’s final mark instead of 40 per cent, according to the proposal.

Moreover, the ministry announced that a monitoring mechanism has been put into place to supervise the subject matter and control the difficulty level of the examinations “to avoid additional stress and burden on students’ academic progress”.

Instructions were provided to educators on the proper use of teaching time, while schools will be informed in detail with relevant circulars as soon as possible.

The ministry also said an announcement will be made by the end of this school year on how students will be assessed as of the 2023-24 school year with the abolition of the twice-yearly exams in their current form.

“All necessary steps are taken to ensure planning for the remainder of the current school year is reconfigured on the basis of the above,” the announcement said.

The proposal satisfies the demands of teachers, students and parents who have repeatedly stressed the importance of limiting the material taught in schools. According to their complaints, often teachers are unable to cover it entirely, yet all material is included in the exams.

Earlier this month, secondary teachers’ union Oelmek had pushed for the twice-yearly exams to be abolished and called for a limited exam material.