Our View: We need to stop formulating education policy by popular demand

A letter, demanding that the twice-yearly exams for lyceums should be scrapped, was sent to the education minister and it was signed by secondary school teachers’ union Oelmek, the confederation of parents’ associations and the students’ organisation Psem. These groups started protesting against twice-a-year-exams at public secondary schools, before they had even been introduced, claiming they were anti-educational and did not help students.

Bowing to the pressure of the protests, parties postponed the approval of the relevant law for a year, and the new system was eventually introduced by stages, first for the final year students, then for all the lyceum years. From the next school year, it will be introduced in all gymnasium classes (first three years) as well, but the signatories of the letter are convinced that the new system has proved a failure and must be scrapped immediately.

In the letter they claimed that none of the objectives set by the education ministry had been achieved, saying this was “a failed procedure that victimised the overwhelming majority of the students, negatively affecting not only their education, but also their mental and emotional health.” By this logic, end of year exams should also be abolished because they must also negatively affect the mental and emotional health of students.

We should consider, who the signatories of this letter are. Oelmek has proved over the many years that it has been imposing its diktats on public education, beyond any doubt, that it places the interests of its members above those of the students. We have a failing public education system, but Oelmek had been preventing the introduction of an evaluation system for the performance of teachers for four decades, because it believes unfit teachers should carry on teaching. It has opposed the twice-yearly exams because it means a bit more work for its members, not for educational reasons.

Parents oppose it because their kids have been moaning about sitting exams twice a year. They do not have the qualifications or the expertise to express an informed opinion, about school exam systems, but they are being used by Oelmek. As for Psem, which is made up 15- 16- and 17-year olds, all that needs to be said is that if they are too young to vote, they are also too young to have a say on how public education should be organised. What we are witnessing is an attempt at formulating education policy by popular demand. Next, this unholy alliance could demand that all students receive an ‘A’ mark on their school leaving certificate, without exams, because anything less would affect their mental and emotional health.