External tests or university exams?

All eleventh-graders who wanted to participate in the first trial testing did it on March 13. They all expect that they will enter higher educational establishments based on test results. But the recent statements of Volodymyr Semynozhenko, the newly-appointed vice prime minister for cultural issues, raises doubts about it. He said that already this year secondary education certificates will be considered while entering higher educational establishments and that, in addition to tests, high-school graduates will take exams again. In other words, tests are good, but exams are in force, too.

According to the data of the Ukrainian Education Quality Assessment Center, almost everything is ready for this year’s entrance campaign — over 300,000 people are registered to take part in it (70 percent of the total population of high-school graduates); the tests have been printed; higher educational establishments have worked out the rules for the admission of high-school graduates; and tests dates have been set. Changing anything in this well-organized scheme is not only purposeless, but also unprofessional, experts suggest. If entrance exams are introduced in higher educational establishments, there is a question: Will they have enough time to get ready for them? In addition, what is the point of the external independent testing if each university is to return to traditional exams? Another dilemma is this: Will students have enough time to prepare for the exams in the remaining two months until the end of the academic year? Thus the work of educators done in recent years is brought to nothing. Moreover, the opinion of 80 percent of parents and students who, according to sociological research, support the independent testing is ignored.

And it’s not the only problem that can emerge because of this statement made by Semynozhenko (it is still unknown what decisions can be expected from Dmytro Tabachnyk, the new minister of education and science). These possible problems can be averted only if external independent testing is made into a law. According to the Verkhovna Rada Committee for Education and Science, the new bill on education with amendments regarding external independent testing was submitted for parliament’s consideration on Jan. 21, 2010. But it was never adopted — there were not enough votes (202 deputies voted in its favor out of the necessary 226).

“Since we don’t have this law, currently any arbitrariness in education is possible,” says the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee for Education and Science Volodymyr Polokhalo. “And this law envisages that secondary education certificates are accepted for admission, as well as many other questions some officials are speculating on now. We submitted for parliament’s consideration a new law on education, which was already approved by scholars, teachers, and students. Therefore, they should just adopt it in order to regulate all discussions that appear regarding the testing.”

To avoid premature panic in society, experts call for the new authorities not to experiment in education, but continue reforms started by their predecessors.

“Every new government must raise its work to a new level, at the same time correcting the mistakes of the previous one, but in no way should it break the entire system by returning to the old and inefficient standards of education,” adds Volodymyr Kovtunets, an expert with the Program for External Testing Promotion in Ukraine. “If the entrance campaign rules are changed now, we will violate the requirements of the European Court of Human Rights in Ukraine, which were used by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Education while preparing the normative documents on testing. Thus, human rights will be violated. One shouldn’t hurry with innovations but should analyze the situation first in order not to break the system that has been successfully working for several years now. And it is working really efficiently.

“One of the tasks for introduction of external independent testing is overcoming corruption in education. In 2007, I conducted my own investigation and found out that in one higher education establishment for a certain specialty the amount of bribes for one year constituted five million dollars. I don’t think something like this exists now. One more task of external independent testing is guaranteeing equal access to education for all citizens. Currently we have nearly reached equality in the number of entrants from village and urban schools who entered higher education establishments on the same terms (51 percent and 69 percent respectively). These figures almost correspond to European indexes.”

Experts do not deny that the system of external testing is not absolutely perfect. But it will take many years to make it perfect and get positive results. Probably the new minister of education and science and the new vice prime minister for cultural issues should take into account the opinion of high-school graduates before introducing any innovations for them. And they already expressed their viewpoint — recently the Ukrainian Student Union addressed Tabachnyk with a request to make the implementation and protection of the external testing his main credo.

COMMENTARIES

Halyna SAZONENKO, principal, Ukrainian Liberal Arts Lyceum:

“Education doesn’t belong to spheres that require constant changes. In order to see a result, 15-20 years are required, and doing one thing one day and another thing the next day is not admissible in education. It’s quite a different system guided by human relations, where ‘human-human’ relations are foremost, and they don’t produce results immediately.

“The normative basis elaborated by the Ministry of Education and Science with the help of the community should be unchangeable. Neither can one alter this year the entrance rules for higher education establishments, which are close to democratic conditions in the European educational area. The external independent assessment should be further introduced because student’s knowledge can’t be assessed by those who prepare them, for university entrants can’t be assessed by university teachers who don’t know our curriculums, the state standard in education, and the psychology of teenagers.

“There are many cases when university teachers during entrance exams ask questions which don’t correspond to the educational curriculum. Of course, the level of requirements to high-school graduates should be different in different universities, and that is why this year three-level tests will be evaluated, when the strongest students will be recommended to enter universities of the highest level, while those who study worse, mid-level universities, and so forth. By the way, this system is already working in China. And let universities choose the level according to which they will accept students themselves.

“One of this year’s innovations is evaluating competence tests. This is a very important approach from the viewpoint of the European practice, because children need not knowledge per se, but knowledge as a means of successful life.

“Students themselves support the decision of the Ministry of Education and Science to hold external independent tests. We constantly survey our students, and most of them are not against the testing. This year 106 eleventh-graders will graduate, and only one of them doesn’t want to take the tests.

“In my opinion, it is purposeless to change the entrance rules this year. Trial tests already started, and children are prepared to them and chose tests, while higher education establishments have adopted admission rules, so the entire system can’t be changed now. If they want to make some changes next year, they should be publicly discussed first, because compulsory education concerns, as a rule, four fifths of the citizens, and therefore their opinion should be taken into consideration. External independent testing has been introduced in 2000, and it is not an immediate experiment which will yield immediate results, but a continuous project.”

Maksym STRIKHA, deputy minister of education and science of Ukraine for scientific issues:

“So far it’s difficult to forecast something in the sphere of education and science. I’d like to believe that the moves [that will be made] will take into account the positive achievements of the previous ministry’s officials. This will depend on the new government’s political vision, on the political establishment on the whole, and hopefully, also on the opinion of the educational community and society.

“On my part, I can suggest keeping to the previous direction of the ministry. It seems to me that there will be no problems with science, since the vice prime minister is a known scholar and he realizes that science should become a real state priority by means of a considerable increase in its financing, modernizing it, and continuing its integration into the European scientific sphere, and, importantly, introducing an innovative system in our state.

“My predictions regarding science are cautiously optimistic. They are cautious because Ukraine is currently experiencing a difficult financial situation. I suppose that regardless of who will be in charge of science in the future, quite correct and predictable steps will be taken here. The same would be desirable regarding education.”