Students vote to strike over new exam system

Students voted on Wednesday to abstain for a day in protest over the education ministry’s decision to introduce four-monthly exams in high schools.

A referendum held at 52 schools returned a 78.9 per cent, or around 14,000 votes, in favour of walking out.

The new system was introduced for first-year lyceum students this school year, with the first exams taken in December.

Students are calling for the abolition of the four-monthly exams, and their replacement with 90-minute and 45-minute ones for each subject during the term without the ministry’s involvement in the test material.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.