Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science has changed its plans for nationwide external testing for grade school leavers this year. Minister Stanislav Nikolaienko announced that only one-third of school leavers will undergo such tests in 2007.
As reported earlier by The Day, external testing was conducted for the first time in Ukraine during the 2006 enrolment campaign. Last spring, over 40,000 schoolchildren wrote tests in centers independent of schools and universities, and received certificates with grades considered the equivalent of those obtained on entrance exams. After proclaiming the success of this experimental phase, the education ministry announced that all school leavers will undergo such tests in 2007.
Now, however, the ministry intends to postpone the complete switch to this system for at least another year. “We were not prepared for a situation in which grades are issued by impartial individuals,” the education minister told a press conference, adding that the external testing results allowed only 11,000 grade school leavers to enroll in institutions of higher learning. The rest either failed to submit certificates or submitted only grades received for one exam. Thus, most applicants had to write entrance exams in accordance with the curricula of schools of higher education.
In other words, this kind of testing is back to being experimental. However, the real reason, according to official data, is not applicants’ inadequate knowledge but the fact that at the moment it is impossible to provide adequate working conditions for specialists who prepare these tests, run them, and check the results. In 2006 external testing involved approximately 6,000 consultants, while 650 specialists graded the results. An increase in the number of students undergoing such testing requires a considerable of expansion of personnel, lecturers, and members of examination boards. Nevertheless, all 11th graders will write graduation tests in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Lviv.
This year applicants to schools of higher education are still allowed to choose between submitting a certificate with their grades and taking entrance exams. For those who choose the latter option the ministry plans to cancel all enrolment interviews to remove all subjective factors from the grading process. Complaints about grades given to written tests will be considered by schoolteachers, who in theory are not supposed to be interested in “permitting” or “barring” a specific child.
The 2007 enrollment campaign is taking additional steps for the applicants’ benefit. First, the state is prepared to ensure employment for graduates who enroll for studies in 2007 — at least on the legislative level. The Verkhovna Rada recently introduced several amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Higher Education,” whereby higher schools undertake to conclude trilateral employment contracts with students and employers.
Second, beginning in 2006, state contracts for institutions of higher education include enrolment quotas for physically handicapped applicants, particularly those with impaired hearing. Together with the Ukrainian Society for the Deaf, the Ministry of Education and Science has established a network of schools of higher education, a list of learning guidelines, and enrolment quotas.
Third, the deadline for submitting applications and enrollment will be extended. Since school leavers can still apply to a number of different schools of higher education at the same time, the ministry will expand the enrollment timeframe for schools on the first and second accreditation levels. Now applicants can enroll in institutes and universities until mid-August; failing this they cannot enroll in a specialized or technical secondary school.
