Even as the new teacher evaluation system — or at least part of it — begins to take shape, with training sessions now under way for teachers and headteachers across primary and secondary schools, the Education Minister, Dr Athena Michaelidou, insists the Ministry is “pressing ahead with its implementation, without compromise or backsliding, guided solely by the goal of improving state education and serving the best interests of pupils and society as a whole.”
The Minister made these remarks in a letter sent days ago in response to a letter from DISY leader Annita Demetriou, adding that the Education Ministry “looks forward to and hopes for the meaningful and constructive contribution of all political forces in the ongoing effort to further upgrade our education system.”
Personally, I hope the Ministry is also looking forward to hearing from the pupils themselves — taking their voices seriously on a matter that is, after all, being reformed “in their best interests,” as the Minister herself put it. What follows are the voices of three 15-year-olds who took part in a discussion about teacher evaluation and the education system as they actually experience it. Young people who are asserting their right to have an opinion — not just to sit there nodding and saying “yes, miss; yes, sir.”
The first pupil said: “Our education system isn’t human-centred — it’s grade-obsessed. The only way to get ahead is to rack up good marks, and everything revolves around that. But good marks can be had through easy subjects that don’t demand much time or effort. None of it is about learning how to be a person in society anymore.”
The second pupil said: “At school, we’re chasing good grades as a reward for our hard work, and then a good career as a reward for those grades — more comfort, more payoff. We live in a society built on marks, not human values. And it all starts at school.”
The third pupil said: “What I want is teachers who see what they do as a vocation, not just a job. Teachers who encourage critical thinking — who don’t turn on students, don’t mark them down, don’t make them feel unwelcome in the classroom just because they have the nerve to speak their mind.”
