Parents and students on the streets next week over quarterly exams

Parents and pupils associations will take their united stance against quarterly exams to the presidential palace next month after accusing the education ministry of turning a blind eye to practical and psychological issues created by this measure, including an unnecessary burden on students already under Covid duress over the past two years.

The protest will be held next Thursday morning, April 7, following an initiative by the national confederation of high school parents associations and the pupils national coordination council, said confederation president Charalambos Dionysiou.

He called on the rest of the educational organisations and actors to join the march and turn the protest ‘into a loud message’, that pupils should not become guinea pigs to the introduction of new legislation, victimised by its bad implementation or simply, the failures of those tasked to enforce it.

Both parents and students claim that the education ministry acted unilaterally, without proper consultation and is now unable to go back on its original decision, not willing to accept that there are serious practical problems with the measure, no less, the pressures on pupils who are called to produce exam results twice a year, in still extraordinary circumstances.

The education ministry has said that the new legislation has already begun to make a difference, based on the latest, improved results of quarterly exams.

Pupils argue that officials are deliberately misleading the public by comparing quarterly results with final year exams, producing inaccurate and unrelated comparisons which have yet to be made public, despite their repeated requests.

In response meanwhile to high school teachers union Oelmek, the education ministry said that pupil evaluation is conducted by teachers themselves and questioning this work, essentially means that the union is questioning the work of thousands of its own members.