This was claimed by the minister on Friday on Facebook when he submitted ten proposals of the ministry on how to improve the organization of interim inspections, including delaying the time of some inspections, more careful evaluation of the tasks and the inspections themselves.
“We will soon start a discussion on when and in what format the second test will take place. Options we will discuss with the community: until St. Christmas (at computers); together with next year’s 11-year-olds (at computers); Together with the main session of the state matriculation exams (in the usual order – paper and pen)”, the minister wrote.
According to him, it will also be possible to “have two tests” for current 10th graders, that is, future 11th graders next school year.
The minister shared the video on Friday as around 100 schoolchildren protested the mid-term exams outside the ministry, following an earlier community outcry over confusing and difficult physics and maths B-level tasks.
“Currently, students are gathering at the ministry to express their civic position regarding midterm examinations. We have received the resolution of the Lithuanian Students’ Union. I can already say that most of the points will be able to be implemented. It may be necessary to discuss more because of the students’ demand that the exam be considered a pass even if the points scored do not reach 35 out of 100 possible,” said G. Jakštas.
“I can assure students, teachers and parents that their voice is heard, suggestions are systematized, meetings and public discussion will take place, summaries and corrections for the future are formulated. And now I’m going to meet the students,” he added.
According to the minister, with the completion of almost two-thirds of the interim inspections, it can be seen that the tasks are the “weak link in the process”. According to him, the fact that they are prepared by competent teachers does not solve the problem, because there is a disagreement in the community regarding the standards of the tasks.
He reminded that the task evaluation instructions are currently being reviewed, principles are being adjusted, which allowed students’ knowledge to be evaluated subjectively more strictly. At the same time, the tasks of the remaining third of the intermediate inspections are additionally reviewed, checking whether there are no inconsistencies left in them.
G. Jakštas also drew attention to the fact that for part of the students and schools the schedule of mid-term examinations “is too difficult”, so the ministry intends to revise it: it is intended to make recommendations not to give eleventh-graders control tasks, projects or other assessments before mid-term examinations, following them or even more so on the same day.
It is also recommended that schools delay the speaking part of the Lithuanian language and literature intermediate test by an hour on April 2-5, if the community agrees on it, and do it no earlier than 9:00 a.m. morning
According to G. Jakštas, for all interim inspections, a second task assessment chain – commissions – would be formed, in addition to the already existing first chain – reviewers.
According to him, only a preliminary assessment would be given to those who passed the intermediate examinations – it might change depending on the conclusions of the commission, and changes would be possible only for the benefit of the student.
The minister also reminded the previous proposal that those who did not attend the intermediate examination would have the opportunity to appear for a second test – during the intermediate examination next year or during the state matriculation exam.
Speaking during the students’ protest, G. Jakštas emphasized that if the electronic system malfunctioned during the inspection, the students’ evaluations would not be affected.
“Students cannot suffer because of all the system’s bottlenecks,” said the minister.
According to him, if the task system got stuck during the interim check, it should have been recorded by the executors-supervisors.
“If someone made a mistake, didn’t register it and didn’t extend the time, then those individual cases are evaluated by the commission of individual cases and everyone will be contacted separately, if this was not the case, and each case is explained,” said G. Jakštas.
This year, with the first introduction of the mandatory eleventh-grade knowledge test, the evaluations of which will be an integral part of the matriculation exam results, there was public outrage over the too sticky and complex B-level physics and mathematics tasks, and educators previously complained that they did not have time to prepare for the process itself.
G. Jakštas, who received criticism as a result, submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonyta a week ago – the head of the Government, who announced this publicly, claimed that she did not accept the resignation and intended to wait until the minister resolved the situation regarding interim inspections.
Last week, President Gitanas Nausėda stated that he made a mistake when he appointed G. Jakšta as a minister, and later called on him to submit specific decisions regarding the above-mentioned eleventh grade inspections.
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2024-04-02 18:52:34
