The new ministry of education has decided to abolish the so-called “Bank of Topics” from secondary education, starting from the May-June 2015 examination period.
The “bank” required high schools to give 50 percent of marks from exam questions submitted by high school teachers around Greece from a pot-luck draw. The problem was that a number of said questions were not taught in all schools or their validity was not checked by education authorities. Furthermore, these grades counted from the first year of high school to the final year. The marks would be counted on the university entry exams.
A new circular sent by Deputy Education Minister Tasos Kourakis on Wednesday said that this system is to be abolished for the first and second years of high school. The results of exams of first and second year high school students will no longer count for university entry.
Henceforth, examination material from each course will be recommended by teachers and have the approval of the school director. The material must be made known to students at least five working days before the end of classes (usually two weeks before the study period prior to exams).
The general average of 9.5 out of 20 is to be given as a passing grade.
The introduction of the “Bank of Topics” had caused a great deal of stress to students as they were worried that they could be tested on material they were never taught. As a result, private tutoring establishments noted a sudden increase of students in their afternoon courses that would not otherwise have sought extra tutoring.
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