Akel demands abolition of all twice-yearly exams

Left-wing party Akel sent a letter demanding the abolition of the twice-yearly exams in schools to the newly elected president Nikos Christodoulides on Monday.

Following a meeting with the Pancyprian confederation of secondary education parents’ associations on Monday, Akel secretary-general Stephanos Stephanou said a letter is sent to the president-elect noting the party’s position on the new evaluation system which covers all gymnasium and lyceum students.

The left-wing party has tabled a law proposal to abolish the exams as of the next academic year. The proposal provides for a transitional period which indicates the examination for 2022-2023 will not count in students’ overall scores.

Stephanou said the exams, which concern all high-school students, cause great stress on teenagers and their parents. He noted how the party shares the parents’ anxiety and understands the need for the issue to be resolved as soon as possible.

Akel has been opposed the institution from the start, Stephanou said, since it creates an exam-centric logic that puts pressure and stress on students and their families.

Welcoming Akel’s position for a legislative regulation, the head of the parents’ confederation, Loizos Constantinou, said the results of the first cycle of the exams carries out earlier this year will be disastrous for the students’ future.

Parents had requested to invalidate what they called the ‘tragic’ results of the twice-yearly exams, to which Education Minister Prodromos Prodromou responded by presenting the average scores which, he said, reflect, the previous year.