Our View: Ministry must look at education reform, not international test scores

Nobody appears to have been surprised by the results scored by Cypriot students in the PISA 2025 exams conducted by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). PISA assesses 15-year-old students “in science, reading and mathematics and compares how well they can apply knowledge and skills beyond routine classroom recall.” More than 760,000 students in 91 countries took part. In the 2025 PISA rankings, Cyprus was in 64th place with similar results as those of the previous survey in 2022, although there was a small fall in mathematics. For a country that outspends most EU countries on education (as a percentage of GDP), it is a very poor showing, although the authorities seem not to be very bothered despite Cyprus being consistently in the bottom third of the rankings. A few politicians might express some concern about education standards when the PISA rankings are released, and the matter is forgotten, until the next time. Last week, when the results were discussed at the House education committee, chairman and Diko deputy Chrysanthos Savvides said “it is shocking that six out of 10 students do not understand what they read.” Others stated the obvious, that results reflected the weaknesses of the education system, demanding immediate change. Ironically, these are the same deputies that were blocking the education ministry’s efforts to introduce a system that properly assessed each teacher’s performance, voted through the abolition of twice-yearly exams and, most recently, backed the continuation of the indiscriminate hiring of graduates as teachers, that was due to end this year. Predictably, a representative of Oelmek, the secondary teachers’ union, tried to attribute the bad results to inadequate preparation by the education ministry. The representative of another union claimed quite incredulously that “the last wheel of the coach is the teacher,” and what was needed was “comprehensive education policy.” This was rather rich, considering that every attempt by an education minister – of most governments – to make changes that would improve educational standards is always opposed by the reactionary teaching unions, whose only concern is the lack of ACs in classrooms. On Monday a report in Phileleftheros said that the directorate of secondary education at the education ministry was preparing broad plans that would have at their centre the preparation of students for international examinations. It is unbelievable that the ministry is siding with unions in taking the view that the low PISA ranking of Cyprus is down to inadequate preparation of the students. Yet the low literacy and poor marks in the sciences are evident from the school exams and this is what should concern the mandarins at the education ministry. Surely the objective must be to make the much-needed changes that would improve educational standards at our schools rather than to achieve a better position in the PISA rankings.