Education minister praises school curriculum modernisation

Education Minister Athena Michaelidou on Saturday said that the foundations have been laid for the modernisation of the school curriculum, an effort which is seen as particularly significant by the government.

Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), Michaelidou said that during the first 100 days of Nikos Christodoulides’ government, several actions and policies have been put into motion by the Ministry of Education, Sports, and Youth.

The first, according to the minister, concerns the evaluation of students in secondary education.

“First of all, a temporary solution was proposed, passed by the House, and subsequently adopted, which concerned the current school year, specifically the primary evaluation of the second semester, with the aim of not treating the children unfairly,” she said.

However, the most important thing about this issue, she explained, is that a new, modern evaluation system was proposed in May, with an emphasis on the continuous assessment of students.

“This is a student-centred system that focuses on authentic assessment and learning, which is limited to a central examination at the end of the school year,” she stated.

This specific proposal, she added, is expected to be adopted by the House plenary next week.

The minister of education also stated that another significant decision concerned the resolution of the long-standing issue of service procurement in several of the ministry’s educational programmes.

With the cabinet’s decision on June 15, she pointed out that “from September 2023, the DRASE+ programmes of primary education and the optional all-day school of primary education will be staffed mostly with educators from both the appointment and appointable lists of the Educational Service Commission”.

“Therefore, there will be continuity in both the schools implementing the DRASE programme, and the all-day schools,” she said.

“This gives us the opportunity to inspect, evaluate, and improve these structures,” Michaelidou added.

What is more, the minister explained that another policy that has received support concerned the institution of all-day schools, which, with a decision by the ministry of education, is being expanded both in primary and secondary education.

Their decision regarding the all-day schools, Michaelidou noted, “does not only include expansion but also improvement and restructuring of the institution, a matter which will be discussed imminently”.

In addition, she also noted that in terms of all-day schools, they relate to the promotion of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields in Cyprus.