SECONDARY school teachers have renewed threats to boycott the upcoming Pancyprian exams unless the government shelves plans allowing students with international examinations to be admitted to state universities.
Yesterday, the union of secondary school teachers OELMEK ratcheted up the heat, warning they might pull out of the ongoing dialogue on education reform, withdraw from education councils and refuse to invigilate the Modern Greek exam come this May.
“These measures are not an end in themselves,” said OELMEK head Eleni Semelidou, shrugging off the notion the union was using blackmail to hold students hostage in pursuit of its own narrow agenda.
Under the Education Ministry’s proposal, 3.0 per cent of positions should be assigned to students based on their GCE and other international qualifications, such as the Baccalaureat. But the idea has sparked a strong reaction by state teachers’ organisations which insist that entrance to state universities should depend exclusively on the national curriculum entrance exams.
However, public teachers insist that entrance to state universities should depend exclusively on the national curriculum entrance exams. The secondary school teachers union OELMEK says any changes to the system will undermine public schools, national examinations and the Greek language.
“It is unfair for students to compare the GCEs with the Pancyprian exams,” Semellidou said yesterday.
The debate has been raging for a year and a half, but is still in deadlock due to the teachers’ opposition. The initial admission quota had actually been 7.0 per cent, but faced with the outcry from teachers’ unions, both the UCY and TEPAK agreed to the 3.0 per cent figure as a show of good will. They both agree that students sitting international exams are being unfairly excluded from state universities, and that this in turn leads to a brain drain from Cyprus.
The ministry had been hoping for a consensus as soon as possible so that the proposal be taken to the Cabinet for approval and to parliament for ratification. The aim was for the new system to be applied in the next academic year.
Another concern voiced by OELMEK’s is that if the scheme were implemented, circumstances would force students attending public schools to take GCEs on top of the state exams in order to cope with the increased competition. That would place an unbearable burden on children and their parents as pupils would have to take extra private lessons and cram for both exams.
But UCY yesterday dismissed these fears as bogus, suggesting they were only a subterfuge to maintain opposition to the plan.
Stavros Zenios, Rector of UCY, said a system would be worked out where students could choose to apply by taking either international or local exams, not both.
“It will be one or the other,” he said.
Zenios himself upped the ante, warning OELMEK that if it stuck to its guns the university’s Senate would take matters into its own hands and recommend a 10 per cent admissions quota for GCE takers starting next academic year.
“We are willing to give dialogue a little more time,” he added.
The government tried to walk a fine line in the row, though Education Minister Andreas Demetriou was none too happy with OELMEK’s aggressive stance.
“I’m sorry to say that this stance does not show respect for the agreed procedure. It is certainly not helpful when one of the interlocutors issues threats during an ongoing dialogue,” he remarked.
The final decision on the new scheme rests with the Council of Primary, Secondary and Higher Education. A decision needs to be made before the end of the current academic year.
