43.6% in French, 44.4% in Mathematics, 48.3% in Sciences, 55% in History and Geography. The mass was said for Mounir (assumed first name) upon reading the results of his external CEB exams : failure and repeating his sixth primary. But following filing a complaint with her school and consulting the exam papers, her parents realize that the notes included in the results summary sheet are not those appearing on the copies of the proofs. The encoding was wrong. A blunder that Mounir, his parents and his school, the Saint-Louis Institute in Brussels, are trying to understand today, which has sent a request for explanations to the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.
Mounir, 11 years old from Molenbeek, is an average student. But for the CEB, he knows, he will have to work twice as hard. His parents enrolled him in the CDJ (Youth Center) in Anderlecht, an association which offers preparation workshops, in the form of modules, for external school tests such as the CESS, the CE1D and… the CEB.
Mounir had passed these CEB tests during the tests
“We also organize mock exams to allow young people to test themselves, to check their mastery in the different subjects.“, says Fouad El Abbouti, volunteer of the Anderlecht CDJ. “Everything is in place to prepare the children as well as possible. And Mounir, he had passed these mock exams, hands down. He showed very good abilities. He is a sensitive child, very attentive, he wants to succeed. Despite the covid, despite the health crisis and the difficulties, he is present on weekends, during the modules. And his parents are behind. With the volunteer teachers who supervise Mounir, the child is put under the conditions of the CEB.“
And when it’s time for the real CEB, in Saint-Louis, Mounir continues on its momentum. He knows, deep down, that he has succeeded. But at the time of the proclamation, it’s a cold shower… He doesn’t pass his certificate. “The child is crying, he is devastated, he can’t even speak“, recalls Fouad El Abbouti. “He gave himself. And there come those failures. The school then advises him, not to go to differentiated first, but rather to start his sixth primary once more.“
No one imagined what was regarding to happen
Sadness for Mounir, sadness for his parents. “However, our non-profit association advises them to appeal to see if there have been any errors. And then, we tell the mother to still ask to see the proofs to note what was wrong, to see Mounir’s mistakes. The approach, at the start, is this. Nobody imagined what was going to happen.“
Received by the school, the mother is initially refused the right to consult the proofs. “They tell her she has no right. But the law says she can. Which makes sense if you want to challenge a result. Eventually, the school agrees to show him the booklets. And there, total amazement! Mounir succeeded everywhere: it is indicated on the sheets.“
In reality, Mounir does not have 43.6% in French as encoded in the final report but 60.8%. In math ? 72% instead of 44.4%. In science, he obtained 73.3% and not 48.3%. In history and geo, the difference between the wrong note and the good one is more than 10%: 66.6% instead of 55%. “That’s a big difference.“Everyone then realizes that Mounir has therefore successfully completed his Basic Studies Certificate.
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