SYRIZA MPs want to scrap school grades for conduct

Twenty-eight lawmakers in the ruling SYRIZA party say that the grading of students’ conduct at school on report cards is an anachronism that should be abolished.

In a letter to Education Minister Costas Gavroglou, the leftist deputies said grading the conduct of students at private and public high schools was legislated many decades ago “during politically volatile times” with dubious intentions.

It was ostensibly introduced, they claim, on pedagogical grounds, but in reality it was used as a means to “stigmatize and terrorize students.”

“This measure was used to marginalize students, many times due to their ideas, their activities, their religion, skin color etc,” the lawmakers said, calling the practice an “affront to our civilization and our youth.”

Although conduct grading has been mostly discarded by the majority of schools around the country over the last four decades, the lawmakers say a small minority of public and private schools are keeping it alive, they insist, in order to compensate for educational inadequacies or to personally punish a student not to their liking.