Moldovan education ministry unveils results of monitoring of exams of graduation of high schools

Chisinau, 21 June /MOLDPRES/ - The examinations for graduation of the high school (gymnasium) have been held, to a great extent, according to the regulations, without incidents. Yet, ‘’the old defective practices of tests’ assessment remained in continuation’’ in several districts commissions for evaluation. This is one of the conclusions of the monitoring of the exams, held by the Education and Research Ministry (MEC).        

For the first time ever, volunteers delegated by MEC monitored the exams for the graduation of the gymnasium. Thus, on those four days of exam, about 400 volunteers were involved in the monitoring of the correctness of the holding of exams. They went to 185 districts schools from Briceni, Cahul, Cantemir, Cimislia, Drochia, Rezina and Soldanesti. These districts were selected, taking into account the big differences registered at the exams in from the ninth form as compared to the school-leaving ones (Baccalaureate) and the huge discrepancies between the number of marks of 9 and 10 at the examination from the ninth form and the Baccalaureate ones.         

„A first conclusion of the monitoring is that, if the holding of the examination tests at the education institutions was, to a great extent, according to the regulations, without incidents, then, in several district commissions for evaluation, the old defective practices of assessing the examination tests remained. Cases were ascertained, when the mark was increased even by 15 points; at a norm of 50 points, this means about 30 per cent. Decision-makers re-evaluated, in samples, 30 per cent of all tests for each discipline of examination for each education institution out of those eight district ones. As many as 4,140 tests were re-evaluated within five republican commissions for re-evaluation,’’ Education and Research Minister Dan Perciun said at a today’s news conference.        

According to the official, in some districts, such as Cimislia, Drochia and Soldanesti, the district commissions for evaluation observed ‘’to a great extent, the provisions of the regulation on the examination’s organization and the teachers evaluators enforced the norm of giving marks properly.’’  

At the same time, the districts of Cahul, Rezina and Dubasari are at the opposite pole, where ‘’big differences’’ were found out between the points provided, from 5 to 15 points more in some tests from certain education institutions. Thus, decision-makers ruled that the all tests written by the graduates of the ninth form should be fully re-evaluated at 13 institutions from those three districts.    

„These re-evaluations proved that we have a systemic problem in many districts from the country when it comes to the correctness of the evaluation. One quite clearly sees who those examiners who constantly gave given improper marks to pupils are. You will see also several outrageous examples, where maximal number of points was given for no answer. This exercise showed that a better monitoring of the work of the education departments, of the district commissions for examination is necessary, so that such infringements should not be committed in the long run. The conclusions of the re-examinations in those eight districts were submitted for this year. We expect the internal inquiry, in order to establish how the committing of these infringements was possible and what stayed at their basis,’’ Dan Perciun also said.           

This year, the mechanisms of securing the examination tests allowed identifying the education institutions where the information leaks took place and where the tests were published during the exams. ‘’During the examinations, a former head of Department from Glodeni published on Facebook, by accident, the settlement of the examination in history. He was probably to privately submit this settlement, but he pushed the wrong key and published on Facebook. We submitted this case to the Police,’’ Dan Perciun said.   

„We believe that time is ripe for us to give up the illegal practices and to teach the pupils from our own example how important the correctness and integrity is. A mark of 10 got by theft does not make you either good professional or valuable man. Nobody wants a graduate with a diploma with high marks, who is lacking the integrity and performance. Zero tolerance to corruption at the examinations for graduation of the gymnasium is crucial for ensuring a correct and equitable education. The corruption at these exams undermines the confidence in the education system and affects directly pupils’ real chances to show their knowledge and skills,’’ the education minister noted.     

In these conditions, the education minister said that, in the long run, the authorities were set to organize examination centres according to the model of the baccalaureate exams also at the examinations for the graduation of the gymnasium. ‘’We will continue next year the external monitoring of the examination for graduation of the gymnasium. We will implement, at wide scale, the re-examination of the examination tests, so that we make sure that no injustice was done to any no child or on the contrary, he/she was advantaged unjustly,’’ Perciun added.      

The national examinations for graduation of gymnasium were held on 3-13 June and the results were announced on 20 June.