The government has approved changes to the exam procedure: ninth graders will take two centralized exams instead of three, and high school students will face a mandatory exam in one of the natural science subjects. The decision has faced criticism due to the late approval date.
The government has approved significant changes to the procedure for conducting centralized exams. The amendments stipulate that this academic year, 9th-grade students will have to take one less centralized exam, and a new assessment will be introduced for secondary school students in one of the natural science subjects. The Ministry of Education and Science has been criticized for making such substantial changes for approval only in November, reports TV3.lv.
Currently, to complete the 9th grade, students must pass three centralized exams - in Latvian, mathematics, and English. The amendments adopted by the government provide that in the future, only two state exams will be sufficient to obtain basic education. The centralized exams in mathematics and Latvian will remain mandatory, while the exam in English or another foreign language will be replaced by a control test in the future.
However, next year, secondary school students will face even larger changes. They will have to take a new mandatory exam at an optimal level in chemistry, physics, biology, or natural sciences.
"A child who has studied, for example, in a humanities or some other class, do you think they will pass the exam in natural science if we tell them about it in November? What kind of plan is this? I don't like it. I really don't like it," said Prime Minister Evika Silina.
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