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The prospect that promotion exams will not be held this year in the country’s high schools and high schools is gaining ground, as long as secondary education continues to operate at a distance. This will include the implementation of the subject bank, from which it has been designed to select subjects for the Baccalaureate promotion exams. The plan of the Ministry of Education for the end of the year, which is presented by “K”, includes cutting the material in all classes -except for the Panhellenic Exams, which has been announced-, in order to allow teaching time in basic chapters.
In particular, it is a fact that classes will not be held during the fortnightly Easter holiday. Thus, as the remote operation of the schools has been extended until March 8 without excluding a new extension until March 15, it is considered almost certain that there will be an extension of primary classes until the end of June. And this, and for psychological reasons since the youngest children have completely lost contact with their teachers and classmates.
As for secondary education, “the longer distance education lasts, the more the cancellation of promotional exams in school gains ground,” a senior ministry official told “K”. This will attract the thematic bank from which it is planned to select half of the subjects in the internal exams of the Lyceum students. Outlook to which OLME reacts, which demands not only the postponement, but also the cancellation of the thematic bank.
Yet at the same time, the Institute for Educational Policy (IEP) is moving in two directions. He continues to organize the theme bank and at the same time prepares to cut the material. It is indicative that he has asked the AD and BD Lyceum teachers to report the extent to which they have taught, in order, according to information from “K”, to make a rational cut of the material and to instruct the schools which chapters are considered basic and they must be taught. Therefore, middle and high school students will save teaching time by not taking exams in school. As for the panhellenic exams, the material is almost complete, say the teachers in “K”.
As the Deputy Minister of Education, in charge of primary and secondary education, Zetta Makri, underlined in statements to “K”, “the ministry is carefully considering many proposals to fully meet the educational needs created due to the pandemic.” Given the coverage of the material, but also the equally necessary return of the student community to its “natural” school environment, there may be an extension of the school year, for obvious reasons. The Panhellenic Exams have been scheduled normally and the material has already been reduced to a significant percentage, as we responded in time to the discomfort caused to the candidates by the health crisis ”.
On the subject they write:
More substantial and lasting learning
By LAMPRINI KOUFAKI *
I don’t know if I can characterize the school year as lost. The educational process in the midst of a pandemic cannot be evaluated in conventional terms. But although experience varies by grade, region, and school, there are some common denominators: mental and physical fatigue, impaired learning habits, insufficient assimilation. What has emerged from the experience of distance education is the suffocating accumulation of material that does not allow its creative management for the benefit of students even under normal conditions, much less in this extraordinary regime. There is no “room” to persist, to adapt, to strengthen, there is no room for children’s curiosity or difficulty, we make the default design that does not recognize special conditions. And as always, the burden falls on the formal obligation (material, contests, grades) and not on the student. Nor, of course, to the teacher, who learns to swim a butterfly in the wreck on his own. A first step should be the abolition of exams in all classes. It does not mean, instead of meeting the academic and emotional needs of our students, attending the exams (at the moment, the postponement of the thematic bank ανακο has not even been announced). It is important that both ministry leadership and parents who are eager for their children’s progress understand this: the obsession with quantity of material versus understanding and emotional health has only face value. Second, urgent and substantial support for teachers in e-learning. Third, plan to fill in the gaps of the current year next year: with an interval of a few weeks or even the first two months, and the consequent rationalization of the material. At last, let’s understand that cultivating skills leads to more substantial and lasting results in learning. For the most part, we try to operate conventionally under unconventional conditions. Perhaps this is a good opportunity to redefine our priorities.
* Ms Lamprini Koufaki is a philologist at the American College Anatolia, Thessaloniki.
Emphasis on substance, not quantity
By MARTHA PASCHALIDOU *
The ministry’s announcements emphasize that distance education works exceptionally, as “the material progresses normally.” However, when the whole system revolves around the delivery of a demanding and excessive material, something that is also confirmed with the untimely return of the Bank of Subjects to the Baccalaureate with a simultaneous increase (!) Of the examined, the risk, both in life and e-learning are the same: the material advances, but by itself. To a large extent, this is exactly what happened in e-learning, the nature of which has magnified known problems in life. The frontal teaching, the asthmatic rhythms, the minimal possibility of personalized intervention were combined with the additional difficulties of distance learning (problematic connections, distraction, non-existent teacher training for teaching methods suitable for the media), leaving the “back desk” of the majority. ) students. Furthermore, unlike countries where a mixed model of modern / asynchronous education was adopted, with limited modern hours (WeBex) to be supplemented with asynchronous (work), the actual transfer of the entire school curriculum to WeBex was chosen here, with the However, teachers must also adopt the asynchronous: the hours in front of the screens, the workload and the fatigue of students, teachers and parents (primary) have skyrocketed, without the corresponding learning results. Can all this be reversed with an extension of the year? It is difficult to fill in the gaps of already exhausted students who rightly protest at this perspective. However, once we return, even with rotating instruction, we can ensure a useful life if tests are not taken at school. A prerequisite is to rationalize the matter; Let us emphasize now, at least now, the substance and not the quantity. For the next school year, the IEP may, after identifying for each course / class the basic goals that should have been achieved, send out timely diagnostic tests and instructions / materials for targeted instruction during the first period. Next year’s material should also be reduced proportionally, as it should have been this year, and the teacher should adapt it to the needs of the children at his discretion, once what should be taught in priority. Finally, supportive instruction should be provided to children who are far behind. What really happened to the “reinforcer”?
* Ms Martha Paschalidou is a philologist in the 1st GEL of Evosmos.
The year lost or not is a matter of luck
By ELENIS IOANNIDI *
This year so far could not be described as more lost than other years. It is certainly a difficult year, but the teachers who did their work at the school are continuing in distance education, possibly putting more effort into keeping the kids focused. What still affects the public school are the chronic pathogens of the system, which appear whatever the form of teaching that is followed. The year lost or not is a matter of luck. If your child is lucky and has good teachers, even in distance education the year is not lost. That is why, as a parent, I would like all teachers to be in their place from the first day of the school year, trained, with a ready program and objectives, evaluated by both themselves and their managers, and of course they are all better. paid. I would suggest to the Ministry and the Education administration to work towards the goal of eliminating chronic dysfunctions, but also to implement the announcements they make. Public school hours are easily lost for reasons such as teacher vacancies, school hours meetings, squatting student occupancy, teacher licensing, and while the ministry ensures hours will be made up, replenishment is only attempted in tutoring and especially. This year at Varvakeio Standard High School, a third of the students, since the beginning of November, have not been taught computer science at all. Everyone is aware of the problem, but no one gives a solution. At the same school, two teachers, with the suggestion and coverage of OLME and while they have been teaching their subjects throughout the year, refused to implement the ministry’s circular on student grading, depriving students of the right to progress. . The problem is not this year’s distance education, the problem is what has been happening in schools for years.
* Ms. Eleni Ioannidi is a parent student at Varvakeio Model High School.
