Last Wednesday, the country’s ten-year-olds sat for the mathematics mock test. Schools were able to pick a time from 9am but were unable to log in for two hours.
“We were all sitting ready and when we found out there was an additional hour, you didn’t even know where to go, what to do. It was a little annoying,” one schoolgirl told LNK news.
Educators started calling the National Education Agency (NŠA), and from there they say they heard a shocking answer that the employee who was supposed to run the inspection works from England. So they set the start of the test according to English time, the difference is two hours.
“We are clarifying with NŠA as well, they said that it was simply a technical error,” Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Sports Ramūnas Skaudžius told LNK news.
The agency calls the situation a human error and apologizes. The manager told LNK last week that he did not know whether the test was really launched according to the English time zone.
“I don’t know, I don’t have such information, who set exactly what lane here. The bottom line is that schools were given the bad news that they could start at 9am. We are very sorry, but there was no way back,” said Aidas Aldakauskas, the temporary head of the NŠA.
Saulius Jurkevičius, director of the Vilnius Lyceum, says that even if the test for Lithuanian children was really started according to English time, it is only a small part of the absurdity that Lithuanian schoolchildren have to endure this year.
“Everything is left unprofessional, to experiment with students, teachers, the whole society,” he said.
The eleventh-grade physics test received criticism, and it is no longer a test, it will be included in the certificate. It was found that some of the tasks were about subjects that the children had not even studied. Even the physics olympiad champions passed half-heartedly. After this exam, Minister of Education, Science and Sports Gintautas Jakštas even asked to resign, but Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė instructed to continue working.
“Not probably, but definitely we should stop all this absurdity that is happening in schools. And to return to what we had,” said the head of the Vilnius Lyceum.
Physics tests are re-evaluated, children will receive additional points for incorrect tasks and will be able to retake them. It turns out that the problem was also found in math problems.
Now the assignments are usually prepared by two pedagogues who won the public procurement, and are also reviewed by a reviewer. But whether the tasks are suitable is evaluated by special commissions only after the exam.
“Perhaps it is possible to have a commission not after the task, but before the students solve it. We value this opportunity,” the Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Sports assured.
Since this year, educational programs have been updated, but last year it was announced that children studying in the eighth grade are assigned tasks of the tenth grade. The programs were updated, but there was no guarantee that the textbooks would be updated.
The director of the Vilnius Lyceum says that even the existing textbooks cause students to wonder why there are so many mistakes.
“There are both factual and perceptual errors. This makes me wonder what all of Lithuania should read here. The whole line, which starts with programs, educational tools, their checks, it is really lame. There really is no sense in that whole context. Most likely, this is the realization of certain imagined ambitions,” said S. Jurkevičius.
The Minister of Education, Science and Sports has said that the programs were updated without proper preparation. But the decisions were allegedly made before him.
See the full LNK news report here:
