Hitrec: ‘Children know less today, they get weaker, and they have better grades …’

We, as a society, and parents, have high expectations of children because we have a cultural heritage that a child who has not enrolled in a good school may not succeed in life, he told about Open Antonio Jurcev, Secretary General of the Croatian Association of Primary School principals.

– A large number of parents have high expectations. Often, due to one grade that is not 5.0, the pressure is made that the teacher may prevent a career or a more successful life for a young person. The schools themselves do not create stress, but they are stressed, ”he added.

He said it was the task of the principal to protect the teachers, and that every child should get the rating he deserves. Suzana Hitrec, president of the Association of Croatian Secondary School principals, said several high schools in Zagreb have entrance exams this year.

– The number of high school departments has increased this year, but the number of students in eighth grades has not increased, so the assumption is that it will be easier to enroll in high school, she said.

She emphasized that the number of high schools that have entrance exams is increasing precisely because they have a large number of students with success 5.0.

– It should be emphasized that these are exams that are internal, subjective evaluation. They can help as a firefighting measure, and the right measure would be an external evaluation exam conducted from the National External Valuation Center, Hitrec said.

She said the state graduation proved to be a very good model, although at first many were against it.

– It’s a fairer system. The parents’ pressure on the school that was before the state graduation was removed, Hitrec said.

Antonio Jurcev said that last year was about 10 percent of the eights with an average of 5.0.

– We can debate whether it’s too much or too little. It should be compared to other EU countries. No ideal solution. By European countries we have different practices. As a society, we have to agree on how we want to organize a description of children to schools, he said. He thinks expectations should be reduced.

– That it should be convinced that it is not just a success to go to an elite high school. We see that by changing the social circumstances of vocational school, they get an increasingly significant place. The salaries are better in professions arising from vocational schools, he said.

He believes that national exams would be more fair and would reduce pressure on schools and teachers.

– The whole other eighth -grade semester would not have pressure to increase these grades. Maybe it is sometimes too late to remember in May and expect a grade of 4 to 5 in a month, Jurcev said.

Marija Roth, a psychologist, said that last year at the X. High School in Zagreb, all students went through with a great grade.

She emphasized that children are asked to perfectionism, with which anxiety and combustion go.

– Today we have children who have managerial illness. It is because of this attitude and applause to excellent grades that perfectionism becomes part of their identity. So parents see them, praise them with friends and family, if we take it to them, as if we had taken their identity, she said.

Hitrec said she was a secondary grade of 4.2 in a vocational school where she works. He thinks this is not realistic for no school.

– In all schools, high grades increased, at the time of Covid and after that. Teachers are more indulgent, our criteria have fallen. I see that children know less, they get weaker, especially in more complex tasks, and they have better grades. We have adapted to newer generations to ask for less for high grades, Hitrec said.

She emphasized that children and young people live in a culture of comparison that is present in every segment of their lives.

– It’s not all to be enrolled. Many are struggling with this request. Some are enrolled, but I can’t track the program. Our system is a sluggish and hard to move from one program to another and then we have unhappy children and unhappy parents, Hitrec said.

Roth warned that the number of absences was growing.

– Students who cannot follow that pace are absent to prepare for the exam and then find it difficult to return to school. The number of children and children who cannot come to school, protection in their room, who is a safe place, is growing, and the psychologist.

– If a child stops enjoying the activities he has enjoyed before, it is a signal for something. If it complains of abdominal pain, frequent headaches, is the same signal. Sometimes it is easier for the child to go to illness, but to face that he will not be able to continue the success he had in elementary school, Roth said.