The "Subject Bank" for the Pan-Hellenic Examinations, which is used successfully around the world, in Greece, apart from its adventurous past, presented unexpected problems in this year's exams.
The validity of the "Subject Bank" is not in doubt, and it is also for our country the most objective way for students' exams. However, its technological protection seems not to have been ensured as it should have been. Besides, the preparation for such an examination system requires the exhaustion of the teaching material by the professors, as well as the possibility of drawing lots from three different questions from the "Bank" per subject, so that the most suitable ones are selected.
The cyberattack on the "Bank" was presented for the first time and brought to light a series of additional problems with the system. However, the unprecedented attack received by the system is, at the very least, unfair to provoke the accusation against the Interim Government and the Interim Minister of Education, the distinguished professor Mr. Christos Kittas, known for his prestige, responsibility, courage and the merit of Chancellor of the University of Athens.
The use of such systems requires many levels of technological control, which were apparently not foreseen for the Lyceum entrance exams. The students suffered with the postponement, and both themselves and their parents, it is next to doubt the validity of the exams, as no one knows to what extent the attack on a state network can reach. If it is limited, that is, to canceling the exams or if it also poses risks for the protection of the subjects. And it is natural that these concerns burden the psychology of the candidates for the entrance exams to the Higher Institutions, which follow.
In an article by Mrs.M.Papamattheiou, I read that a senior official of the Ministry of Education told "Vima" jokingly that "whenever the nationwide exams fell close to a pre-election period, problems of one nature or another arose...". Could it be that the timing of the elections was not the right time for the exams? I believe that if the system is not fully secured, it should, perhaps, be foreseen in the event of a cyber-attack, the possibility of conducting the exams, without postponement, with the traditional system, which has been recognized throughout time as inviolable and ... above parties!
Let us hope that the evil demon of the "Subject Bank" in our country will stop here, and the government, which will take over after the national elections, will promptly take care of the technological fortification of this examination system.
Prof. Stella Priovolou, president of the Body of Emeritus Professors of EKPA, dean of the Municipal People's University of St. Paraskevi.
THE STEP 12.6.2023
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