In Estonian schools, the principle for finishing lower secondary school has been to take final exams and pass them with a least 50% of the maximum result. During the pandemic, the exams have been cancelled in 2020 and held without the requirement of passing the 50% hurdle in 2021. The latter change, the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research believes, should be made a constant principle, the Estonian public broadcaster ERR reports.
«As this exception made it possible to see what it means, this year, the plan is to make the exception a valid principle,» explained Ülle Matsin, the head of the General Education Policy Department of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research.
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Prior to the pandemic, the exam had to be passed with at least half of the maximum available results to graduate from lower secondary school. Ministry officials now seek to replace the five-point scale with percentage points, as is the case in the final exams of upper secondary school and to make it enough to just to try to pass the exam to finish the lower secondary education.
In the autumn, the ministry also consulted teachers’ associations. Most of them approved the plan. In another aspect, with the results of the final exams of lower secondary school becoming less significant, the importance of the additional enrolment exams held by many upper secondary schools in Estonia will increase, ERR reports.
Estonia seeks to change rules for finishing lower secondary school
