The introduction of the Subject Bank in the 1st and 2nd lyceums this year highlighted the problematic aspects of the education system.

Greek students who have completed their compulsory education lag behind in the sciences, mainly in mathematics and physics.

Slightly more than half managed to pass the basic exams at the final exams of the 1st and 2nd lyceums. The leadership of the Ministry of Education decided to give, according to “K”, the final approval to the Institute of Educational Policy (IEP) so that the Subject Bank will be extended to the 3rd grade of general education and vocational lyceums, with the first application for students of C΄ High School 2022-2023 educational of the year.

According to the data provided by “K”, during the entrance exams this year for students of secondary schools 1 and 2, 51.9% of students wrote more than 10 in algebra, 52.52% in geometry, 52.6% in physics and chemistry – 55.15%. Better interest in basic courses in the humanities and medical sciences.

In history, 62.05% of students scored more than 10 points, in biology 69.20%, 72.82% in ancient Greek and 77.54% in modern Greek language and literature.

According to classified information “K”, the Ministry of Education and the IEP studied the data on the eve of the new academic year.

The statistical analysis focused on the written exams and did not address whether the student passed the course or not.

The subject bank will be extended to the 3rd grade of general education and vocational secondary schools, with the first application for students of the 3rd secondary school of the 2022-2023 academic year.

And that’s because it’s very difficult for a student to stay in the same class in high school as the scoring system is set up to promote the student.

Thus, it was felt that better conclusions about targeting the subject bank could be made by examining only the results of the June written exams.

In fact, if initially there was an idea to compare this year’s figures with those of 2014 (then the Thematic Bank was implemented for the first time and 24% remained open for review), then in the end the comparison was made with 2019.

There were no written exams in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. The performance in 2021 compared to 2019 was worse, but not as sharp.

This was also facilitated by a significant change in the way objects were drawn this year. In particular, the original prediction was that half of the topics in each course would be selected by teachers, and the other half would be taken from the repository. For example, for mathematics and physics, two subjects will be chosen by the teacher and two subjects by the bank with a certain degree of difficulty. In language and history courses, students take exams in two subject groups. One was to be defined by the course instructor and the other was to be drawn by the Bank. Finally, it was decided that for each school, the Bank would select three subjects—each of varying difficulty—and from these the teacher in each grade or department would choose.

For example, in mathematics, six subjects were played, three for each of the banking subjects. For one thematic block “Language, history” three thematic blocks were compiled. Of these, the professor chose which one to put on the exam. Thus, the teacher could choose the topics that he considered the most suitable for the level of his students.

Thus, it was decided to extend the Bank to students of the 3rd secondary school in general education courses (language, history or mathematics) and in four orientation courses. As Secretary General of the Ministry of Education Alexandros Koptsis told K yesterday, by December a sufficient number of subjects for the 3rd lyceum will be collected – there will be about 5,500 in total – and the existing ones will be updated. . Now the Bank has 11,595 subjects – 5,380 of them for the 1st grade of all types of secondary school and 6,215 for the 2nd grade.

The IEP Guide emphasizes that the Bank ensures equality for all students in terms of examination requirements and is a tool for assessing the education system.

How Subject Bank started and what it is striving for

The item bank was created in accordance with law 4186 of 2013. Specifically, half of the subjects for internal high school examinations were chosen by the course teacher, while the other half was taken from a bank organized by the Institute for Educational Policy (IEP).
Indirectly, the goal was to complete the curriculum in all schools rather than create classes with gaps in the curriculum.

With the Bank, teachers would be forced to teach all of the material, because otherwise the subject could be taken from a chapter they didn’t teach, and thus would be open to students and their parents.
In fact, the Ministry of Education and the Institute for Education Policy believe that the introduction of the bank will help to cope with distortions in the teaching of subjects at the university.

The subject bank was first implemented in the 2013-2014 academic year in the 1st and 2nd grades of the general education and vocational gymnasium. Then the failure of the students was great.

According to the data provided by the OLME in July 2014, out of 65% of schools across the country, if in 2013 4% of students in intra-school exams were recognized as re-examined, in 2014 this percentage reached 24%.

These students were brought back for re-examinations in September for promotion.

On the other hand, as officials of the current leadership of the Ministry of Education emphasize in “K”, in 2014 the thresholds for advancement in basic subjects (for example, language, mathematics) were significantly lower, so the failure rate was higher than usual. .

The high bounce rate in 2014 caused a huge backlash, with OLME pulling the ball.
Thus, the then government after June 2014 appeared to be concerned about the results and considered ways to limit the number of retakes. Finally, following the January 2015 elections, the SYRIZA government abolished the Emissions Bank in March.