A glimmer of hope in education
The government?sdecision to revive ?experimental schools? 25 years after they were abolished – back then they were usually referred to as ?prototype schools? – marks a small but significant step toward the distant goal of fixing the troubled state that is Greece.
The proposals put forward by the Education Ministry yesterday include the evaluation of teachers as well as pupils. The hope is that both sides involved in the educational process will be willing to take part in an experiment, as it were, that will combine greater freedom in instruction techniques with a stricter assessment of results.
In a society that has made evaluation and excellence a taboo, some children here will finally get an opportunity to learn in an environment which will inject them with the love of knowledge, seriousness and responsibility – all by-products of comprehensive assessment.
If the experiment succeeds, it will help generate citizens who are not afraid to face up to the challenges of the times.
