Statement by AKEL MP Christos Christofides after the session of the Parliamentary Education and Culture Committee’s session

 

• The Education Minister’s stand is an insult to Parliament
• The government’s insistence on exams every 4 months is inexplicable and damaging for pupils

8 October 2021, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

Let me begin by expressing our strong displeasure that while this special session of the Education Affairs Committee was decided in coordination with the Minister of Education for him to be present here today to discusss a crucial issue affecting the future of thousands of pupils, the Minister for some reason for which he hasnt briefed the Committee did not appear. We waited for half an hour for him, we kept being told that the Cabinet was over and that he was on his way. In the end, he insulted and ignored the Education Committee and, by extension, Parliament itself. As far as AKEL is concerned, this insult will not go unnoticed.

On the substance of the issue we discussed in the Education Committee, I would like to state that the government, despite the unanimous calls of all interested educational stakeholders, pupils, parents and teachers, despite the calls of all political parties – except ruling DISY party that is – for the suspension of holding exams every 4 months for the third grade of high schools, is insisting on forcing pupils to take a triple national examination in five months.

Teaching time is being reduced, children have gaps from previous years due to the pandemic and instead of looking at how to help them fill those gaps, we are forcing them into taking a marathon of exams for their diplomas and university admissions. We are very much afraid that this process will put stress on pupils and their parents and will have very unfortunate consequences for a generation of school students who well and truly did not attend schools physically over the past two years because of the pandemic. The responsibility now for the situation we will experience in the period ahead, which will be experienced by thousands of pupils and their parents, unfortunately, lies exclusively with the government and the ruling DISY party.

This summer that has passed, the government prepared a bill to count the four-month exams as university entrance exams too, because the government itself assessed that the three exams system is excessive. Yet with an inexplicable insistence it will force thousands of pupils and their parents into uncertainty, immense stress and perpetuate the shortcomings that have been created. For some reason that only the government and the ruling DISY party can explain.