I have opinions, dammit! (And I'm procrastinating!)
For the past two weeks high school students have sat their end of high-school exam. It's nationwide exam, and you can somewhat equate it with the SAT. It's not exactly standardized and no machines correct the exam papers, but basically every student who has graduated high-school takes it. I took it four years ago, and it was was what it was.
Now, this year, a new Minister for Education has actually enforced the rules by which this exam should be organized and mandated security cameras and/or webcams in every classroom. This led to a record amount of students being kicked out of the exam for cheating, and in one instance 85% of one high-school. A lot of papers that looked exactly the same were disqualified.
As a result under 50% of the students who took the test failed, which is a 20-30% decrease from previous years as well as very low overall grades. To me, as I am sure many others, this does not come as a surprise. As I mentioned previously this exam (as just about ever exam in this country) was full of people cheating in some way whether it was by mobile phone, cheat sheet or exam supervisors giving the answers. I feel that this year's number more accurately reflects the number of students that actually knew enough to pass the test.
Of course there have been many outcries of "the questions were too hard!", "there were mistakes!" and "trick questions!", but really the structure of the tests and the study material requirements have changed very little for the past 20 years. I looked over the tests, and I feel I could have probably passed this exam without having to do too much re-reading of the material. The truth is that people were expecting to be able to cheat in spite of ample warning. No one ever studies in school anymore (grade, high, or beyond), the expectation is that most if not all will pass this exam without (much) inconvenience. There's a lot to be said about teenagers that are only into partying and spending time on the internet and the like. You can prepare for this exam by yourself, it has been done.
Now, the disastrous results are not simply the fault of students who have failed to study. The whole system is pretty fucked up. The professors (who are paid very low wages) show very little interest in their work. The homework assignments are easy and rarely, if ever, checked over in the classroom. Or they are checked over, and upon observing that most students didn't know how to do complete it or just didn't bother, these same exercises are solved by the teacher in front of the class, without much student involvement. Here, teachers talk at students and not with them, or talk with the best in the class because they're the only ones capable of a normal conversation while the others do whatever. They fail to grab the attention of most of the classroom and they do little to correct it. Combine that with entitled students who have no respect and talk back at teachers and you have a prefect breeding ground for crass ignorance and inculture. And then there's the second part, the private tutoring, for which most students pay. Two hours spent with a teacher (sometimes your classroom teacher) learning what you should have learnt in school - if you have a good teacher. If you don't you'll just be doing your homework assignments with someone looking over your shoulder. And instead of systematic learning students are encouraged to learn things by rote and repeat them exactly.
Which brings me back to the subjects on the tests themselves. They were pretty much what you could expect after having the same basic exam for 20 years. But that doesn't mean they’re actually of any use. The Romanian language exam requires you to be a literary critic asking about motives the stylistic role of figures of speech and the like or writing a short “argumentative essay” based on a quote about how ideas are mirrors of your soul from a Romanian poet. Wha-huh? I don’t know what to write about that. And then there’s one big 2-page essay that has to be the characterization of a character or some other text analysis based on the bibliography for the exam.I’m not going to talk about the factual errors in the other tests or the ridiculousness of taking a programming exam on paper.
The system need to be fundamentally changed. I hope this result spark a real dialogue between students, parents, teachers and the ministry. Students have to learn, but in order for that to happen the teachers need to get the to like learning and show them how to learn rather than memorize. We need people to understand that we do not need armies of college graduates, but we do need high school graduates with real-world capabilities. We need people that don't expect to be handed everything on a platter and that cheating is not a way of life. This country needs change, and it needs to start young. Or everything will keep going to hell in a handbasket.
Now, this year, a new Minister for Education has actually enforced the rules by which this exam should be organized and mandated security cameras and/or webcams in every classroom. This led to a record amount of students being kicked out of the exam for cheating, and in one instance 85% of one high-school. A lot of papers that looked exactly the same were disqualified.
As a result under 50% of the students who took the test failed, which is a 20-30% decrease from previous years as well as very low overall grades. To me, as I am sure many others, this does not come as a surprise. As I mentioned previously this exam (as just about ever exam in this country) was full of people cheating in some way whether it was by mobile phone, cheat sheet or exam supervisors giving the answers. I feel that this year's number more accurately reflects the number of students that actually knew enough to pass the test.
Of course there have been many outcries of "the questions were too hard!", "there were mistakes!" and "trick questions!", but really the structure of the tests and the study material requirements have changed very little for the past 20 years. I looked over the tests, and I feel I could have probably passed this exam without having to do too much re-reading of the material. The truth is that people were expecting to be able to cheat in spite of ample warning. No one ever studies in school anymore (grade, high, or beyond), the expectation is that most if not all will pass this exam without (much) inconvenience. There's a lot to be said about teenagers that are only into partying and spending time on the internet and the like. You can prepare for this exam by yourself, it has been done.
Now, the disastrous results are not simply the fault of students who have failed to study. The whole system is pretty fucked up. The professors (who are paid very low wages) show very little interest in their work. The homework assignments are easy and rarely, if ever, checked over in the classroom. Or they are checked over, and upon observing that most students didn't know how to do complete it or just didn't bother, these same exercises are solved by the teacher in front of the class, without much student involvement. Here, teachers talk at students and not with them, or talk with the best in the class because they're the only ones capable of a normal conversation while the others do whatever. They fail to grab the attention of most of the classroom and they do little to correct it. Combine that with entitled students who have no respect and talk back at teachers and you have a prefect breeding ground for crass ignorance and inculture. And then there's the second part, the private tutoring, for which most students pay. Two hours spent with a teacher (sometimes your classroom teacher) learning what you should have learnt in school - if you have a good teacher. If you don't you'll just be doing your homework assignments with someone looking over your shoulder. And instead of systematic learning students are encouraged to learn things by rote and repeat them exactly.
Which brings me back to the subjects on the tests themselves. They were pretty much what you could expect after having the same basic exam for 20 years. But that doesn't mean they’re actually of any use. The Romanian language exam requires you to be a literary critic asking about motives the stylistic role of figures of speech and the like or writing a short “argumentative essay” based on a quote about how ideas are mirrors of your soul from a Romanian poet. Wha-huh? I don’t know what to write about that. And then there’s one big 2-page essay that has to be the characterization of a character or some other text analysis based on the bibliography for the exam.I’m not going to talk about the factual errors in the other tests or the ridiculousness of taking a programming exam on paper.
The system need to be fundamentally changed. I hope this result spark a real dialogue between students, parents, teachers and the ministry. Students have to learn, but in order for that to happen the teachers need to get the to like learning and show them how to learn rather than memorize. We need people to understand that we do not need armies of college graduates, but we do need high school graduates with real-world capabilities. We need people that don't expect to be handed everything on a platter and that cheating is not a way of life. This country needs change, and it needs to start young. Or everything will keep going to hell in a handbasket.