The government has approved significant changes to the procedure for conducting centralized exams. According to the amendments, this academic year, 9th-grade students will have to take one less centralized exam, and high school students are expected to introduce a new state assessment work in one of the natural science subjects. Serious criticism has been voiced regarding the fact that the Ministry of Education is presenting such important changes for approval only in November, reports TV3 News.
Currently, to complete the 9th grade, students need to pass three centralized exams – in Latvian language, mathematics, and English language. The changes approved by the government stipulate that in the future, it will be sufficient to successfully pass two state exams to obtain basic education.
The exams in mathematics and Latvian language remain mandatory, while the exam in English or another foreign language will be replaced by a monitoring work.
"We will also evaluate the monitoring work centrally. It can be conducted earlier, not necessarily at the end of May or June, and its assessment will not affect graduation. We are also looking at which exams schools choose when admitting students to high school. Mainly, this is Latvian language and mathematics," explained the head of the state exams department of general education at VIAA, Kaspars Špule.
However, even more extensive changes await high school students next year. They will have to take a new mandatory exam at an optimal level in chemistry, physics, biology, or natural sciences. This exam has sparked the most intense discussion in the government, as the Ministry of Education presented it for consideration by the Cabinet of Ministers only this Tuesday.
"A child who studied, for example, in a humanities or any other class, how do you think they will pass the natural sciences exam if we inform them about it in November? What is the plan? I don’t like it. Not at all," stated Prime Minister Evika Siliņa (New Unity).
"No, it is not true that this came as a surprise to them. Any new assessment work is implemented gradually. Monitoring works in natural sciences have already been conducted two academic years prior to this," responded Minister of Education Daiga Melbārde (New Unity).
Schools also confirm that they were aware of the planned new exam. As much as possible, they are preparing students for it; however, as biology teacher from Riga Secondary School Teika, Lauma Salmane, admits, it is still just attempts to feel out what needs to be learned, as the content of the exam is still unknown:
"Right now we are feeling out what needs to be learned and what doesn’t. It’s quite difficult. And students have great concerns about whether they will be able to pass this exam. For me, as a teacher, it is also hard to prepare them."
It is clear that this year, the new exam will not have to be taken by those 12th-grade students who previously completed the monitoring work mentioned by the minister. For all others, it will become an additional exam that they will have to take already in the 11th grade, with the possibility of retaking it a year later.
"This is a good opportunity to show that we know something beyond English, mathematics, and Latvian. And, of course, more people will be interested in the exact sciences. It used to be three exams – that’s less stress, and biology, chemistry, or physics is something new, and there is a bit of stress," says 11th-grade student from Riga Secondary School Teika, Laura Katrina Kaparšmite.
"We will already take two exams, we will know what to prepare for. It will just be an additional burden on everything, and, of course, closer to summer, it’s not particularly pleasing. But nothing that we can’t handle at our age," notes student Mark Strogonov from the same school.
The school principal is also convinced that her students will prepare for the new exam and successfully cope with it.
However, principal Guna Pudule critically assesses the fact that these are yet more changes that are not being implemented in a timely manner:
"Under normal conditions, it should be like this: a student enters the 10th grade and already knows what to expect at the end of the 12th. The program for three years should be clear and understandable – where they are heading, what they are choosing, what deserves more attention. And now it turns out that you enroll – and you don’t know what awaits you at the end of the 12th grade. In this case – even at the end of the school year."
Considering that an additional exam in natural sciences is being introduced in secondary schools, it is also planned to establish that in the future, it will be sufficient to pass one exam instead of two mandatory higher-level exams. However, these amendments have also been delayed and are expected to be reviewed by the government only next week.
