Latvian authorities promise to avoid chaos around centralized exams

The academic year that has just ended was marked by 116,067 examination papers – of which, as Diena points out, 55,685 were for grade 9 (primary school), and 60,382 for grade 12 (secondary school).

Compared to last year, the former increased by 1,500, the latter by 3,000. In total, the State Education Content Center prepared 26 centralized exams, five of which were for ninth-graders, and the rest for secondary school. Unfortunately, the newspaper does not write that some of the latter had to be taken by 11th-graders as well — as the “optimal level.”

Deputy Director of the Information Technology Department of the Ministry of Education and Science Kaspars Veldre “dispelled rumours that last year’s chaos, which manifested itself in a large number of errors in the data, as schools rushed to prepare documents, could be repeated.” “In order to prevent cases where a certificate is issued to a student who has not passed the exam, the reporting to schools has been improved this year. If the grade received is not satisfactory, the adult student or the legal representatives of the minor student can appeal it within a month from the date of notification of the grade.” The final decision will be made by a special appeals committee.