PHILIPSBURG--The stricter final examinations requirements for HAVO/VWO at Milton Peters College required by The Netherlands have been put on hold for this year.
Minister of Education Silveria Jacobs said on Wednesday that the new exam norms would not go into effect until the next school year and student exams would be scored based on the old norms.
The new passing requirements call for exam students to achieve an average mark of at least 5.5 for each subject. The current system makes it possible for final examination students who underperformed at the central exams to pass nevertheless, thanks to the combining of usually better results of the school-based exams held during the course of the school year.
For example, a student can achieve a “7” for a subject in the school-based exam, then get a “4” for the same subject for the final exam and still pass when those two marks are combined and averaged. With the new requirements, students have to pass the final exam outright with a minimum 5.5.
Jacobs said St. Maarten had signed on to have the new norms implemented this year, but that would have placed St. Maarten’s students at a disadvantage in relation to students from other islands going to Holland based on exams scored in keeping with the old norms.
She said strict regulations would be put in place in preparation for next school year when the new passing requirements would take effect. The Departments of Examinations and Inspection have been tasked to guide and make sure the accountability checks and balances are in place throughout the coming school year, so that in June 2013 there are no surprises and the schools, parents and teachers have done all they’re supposed to do in order to make sure that the students are properly prepared for the exams and exam norms,” Jacobs said.
She also explained that guarantees were in place that HAVO/VWO diplomas based on the old norms still would be recognised in Holland and that the Ministerial decree to change the exam regulations actually never had been approved.
When queried on what had gone wrong, given that all stakeholders had known for two years that the change in norms was coming, Jacobs explained that after it had been decided that changes would be made and everyone had been informed, a report compiled by the Inspection Department basically outlined that exam results would be poor.
“What I believe should have happened is more checks and balances should have been in place from the Ministry of Education. The school boards and schools have responsibilities. However, we did not do the follow-up either, so I do not feel we can penalise the students. All stakeholders must take full responsibility for the results as they stand, regardless of which norms are used,” she said.
She said a preliminary plan for the upcoming school year was being looked at that would call for a plan of action to be provided to the Ministry outlining how preparations are going for the new norms implementation.
Parents in Curaçao and the directorate of Omega College in Curaçao had protested the new rules, stating that the school needed more time to prepare the students, considering that achieving a 5.5 for every subject could be a tall task for the majority of students.
In fact, The Netherlands is expecting the number of non-passing students to increase by 10 to 15 per cent this year due to the stricter rules.
Judging from last year’s exam results in St. Maarten, when only 55 per cent of the students passed, a 10 to 15 per cent swing could show bleak results at the island’s largest secondary school, where students have posted disappointing results the last two years.
St Lucia TV ratings Roy Hodgson Canada Tony Cottee Peter Beardsley
No comments:
Post a Comment