Government proposals on twice-yearly exams due in three weeks

The government will submit proposals in two to three weeks for an upgraded student evaluation system Education Minister Athena Michaelidou said on Friday, following a week of contradicting statements about the twice-yearly exams.

Speaking to CyBC, the minister said there “needs to be an evaluation system,” adding that sitting exams twice in a year will not be abolished.

However, on Thursday President Nikos Christodoulides said that twice-yearly exams at schools have failed, and legal reforms need to be made to abolish them.

In an attempt to clarify, Michaelidou said the exams at the end of the school year’s first and second semesters would not be scrapped, but rather the methodology and the manner in which they are conducted will be changed.

She said that it is a problem this year as the subject matter for the exams has been too much, necessitating change and corrective measures, which will ease the goals of the exam.

The minister said that more focus is on the next school year as there should be a comprehensive three-year plan, which will allow the education system to breathe.

In comments about the exams on Thursday though, the president said he agrees with the abolition of the twice-yearly exams, but there should be something else in the matter of examining students, as within a school year there cannot be a different exam in the first four months and a different one in the second.

“The twice-yearly exams with a legal reform should be abolished as of next September,” he said.

Christodoulides said he spoke with Michaelidou about the matter, and the weight of the grades achieved on the twice-yearly exams on students’ final marks.