Exams to cover only 60 per cent of teaching material this year (Updated)

High school exams will include only 60 per cent of the teaching material this year, after the plenum approved a relevant education ministry proposal on Thursday.

The approved proposal also provides for the exams carried out in the second semester of the school year to account for 20 per cent in student’s final marks instead of 40 per cent.

It was voted with 28 votes in favour, 14 against and two abstentions.

MPs also rejected the amendments tabled by Akel and Diko, while another proposal by independent MP Andreas Themistokleous was withdrawn before the session started.

The decision comes after some parliamentarians accused the education ministry of concealing the opinion of the legal service on the issue, which was made known to them a day before the plenum.

According to Phileleftheros newspaper, which had access to the opinion, the legal service suggested procedures could be carried out that will help raise students’ marks which do not require legislative regulation.

But Education Minister Athena Michaelidou denied such claims, saying the ministry studied the opinion and concluded that the conditions for an upward regression of student grades were not met.

She reiterated that the only legal proposal in the moment is the ministry’s proposal, on which MPs prepared three amendments according to House Education committee chairman Pavlos Mylonas.

One of the amendments that were rejected was by Diko, with MP Zacharias Koulias saying that the written exam for the first semester should remain at 40 per cent of the overall mark while for the second and third to be reduced at 20 per cent.

Another amendment from Akel provided for the overall grade of the exams in the first semester to be excluded from the calculation of the students’ final mark, media reported.

For his part, former Elam MP and now independent Andreas Themistokleous said exams should remain as they are for this year and any changes should be made for the next school year. However, this was withdrawn before voting.

It is noted that at the end of May, the education ministry will present a bill for the abolition of the twice-yearly exams as of the new school year.